BC Today – Daily Report December 18, 2019 Quotation of the day “It would be so weird if there was an election campaign and I was running against John [Horgan] after we've just spent so long working together. It ​ ​ ​ ​ would just be too weird. I couldn't do it.” BC Green Leader Andrew Weaver, who announced in October that he would not seek re-election, ​ ​ says he just can’t stomach the idea of running against the party his has partnered with for more than two years. Today in B.C. After two years of collaboration, Weaver feels ‘weird’ about the idea of campaigning against the NDP Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver has fought his last election; next month, he will step down ​ ​ just as the race to become his successor as party leader gets underway. Weaver has suggested the Greens would be well-served in choosing a leader from the Lower ​ ​ Mainland and, while he says he does not want to “weigh in” on what the party should do once he’s no longer at the helm, he does have hopes for its future. “There’s a number of potential paths that can be taken from here,” he told BC Today in a ​ ​ year-end interview. “The path that I tried to take it down is one that's focused very much on small business, focused on evidence-based decision making ... on being there for people … and on doing what's right, not what's politically expedient. I would love to see someone continue that forward.” “There's some who might want to take the party in a more eco-socialist [direction],” he added. “That's not my kind of preference, but [I’ll] leave that up to the future leader.” Weaver said he’s aware of one prospective candidate who “shares the same values” he does and, as of last week, had not yet heard of any others planning to get into the leadership race. His October declaration that he would not seek re-election in 2021 and would step down as party leader — in spring 2020, Weaver said at the time — was abrupt but not out-of-character for a politician who proposed legislation that would limit MLAs to no more than 12 years in office earlier this year. “I've always believed politics should be a sense of civic duty — you get in, you do what you say you're going to do and then you get out,” he said. “There are far too many people in politics, including in [the B.C. legislature] who have been here far too long. And when you're here for too long, you ... in many cases forget why you were elected in the first place.” Weaver sees Clean BC, the province’s emission reduction plan, as his crowning achievement. The “ambitious economic plan to build a thriving, climate-responsible and climate-resilient economy” was recognized in the public sector category of Delta Management Group’s 2020 ​ Clean 16 awards in October and prompted Weaver to make his step-down announcement on ​ the first day of the fall sitting. “I did what I said I'm going to do, and it's nationally recognized — that's the time to move on,” he said. “I don't think you can get any better than we’ve got right now — BC Greens, working very collaboratively with government. I know it's not the typical political thing, because you should always, you know, fight one more election.” The unique collaboration between the Greens and the NDP government has also contributed to Weaver’s lack of appetite for another election battle. Weaver now thinks of many NDP cabinet ministers as “quite good friends” and his affection for Premier John Horgan is well-known and ​ ​ thoroughly reciprocated. “I’d have a hell of a hard time running as a leader against them right now ... because campaigns are very antagonistic and I don't like that,” he said. “I like to get shit done.” After two years of working closely with the NDP, campaigning against them would feel “weird” to Weaver. For his part, the premier shares Weaver’s warm sentiments but is more clear-eyed about the realities of election campaigns. “At the end of the day, we're going to be competing for the same votes,” Horgan told BC Today ​ in reaction to Weaver’s comments. Horgan also lamented the failure of the 2018 proportional representation referendum, something his caucus and the Greens “worked hard together” on. Had B.C. switched electoral systems, Horgan believes future election campaigns could have been more positive with less of “the anti-other guy rhetoric” often launched prior to the polls closing. Asked about his own regrets, Weaver did not mention proportional representation, saying instead that he wishes he’d been able to convince the NDP not to proceed with its “generational sell-out,” the courting of liquid natural gas development through a suite of subsidies and incentives. “The only thing we could have done is caused government to fall,” he said of the party’s options on the issue. “I don’t think we could have done more.” Some of Weaver’s concerns about the government’s approach to LNG development were mollified by the NDP’s pledge to include the industry’s emissions in its legislated emission targets. “That avoided an election,” he said of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Amendment Act, ​ ​ which passed in the spring of 2018. In the next election, Weaver expects the NDP to “go hard against the Greens” as the party tries to move from a minority to a majority in the legislature. After an “ugly” 2017 provincial campaign and disappointingly similar tactics in the 2019 federal campaign, Weaver says he’s ready to leave the political realm. “I don’t want to do that again,” he told BC Today. “I want to leave on a high note.” ​ ​ Today’s events December 18 at 11:30 a.m. — Duncan ​ Education Minister Rob Fleming will be joined by students, educators, school district staff and ​ ​ community members at Cowichan Valley Secondary School for an announcement about supporting local students. December 18 at 1:30 p.m. — Nelson ​ Children and Family Development Minister Katrine Conroy will be joined by Energy, Mines and ​ ​ Petroleum Resources Minister Michelle Mungall, MLA for Nelson—Creston, to celebrate a new ​ ​ campus-based child care centre at Selkirk College's Silver King Campus. December 18 at 5 p.m. — Quesnel ​ Liberal MLA Coralee Oakes (Cariboo North) will attend a Christmas event at the Quesnel ​ ​ Legion, featuring hot chocolate and a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. December 18 to 20 — Cariboo and Okanagan regions ​ ​ The Ministry of Forests’ Old Growth Strategic Review panel will visit communities in the ​ ​ ​ ​ Okanagan and Cariboo regions “on or around” these dates to gather “perspectives on managing the province's old-growth forests for ecological, economic and cultural values.” The final sessions are set to take place in the Kootenays in early January. Topics of conversation ● After two years, Premier John Horgan is considering a cabinet shuffle in 2020. “We ​ ​ ​ need to re-tool, we are at the halfway point,” he told Global News in a year-end ​ ​ interview. “There will be some members who will probably not be running again. I need to have those conversations over the winter break. There will probably be some changes in the new year and that’s appropriate.” ○ Since the NDP cabinet was sworn in in July 2017, the only cabinet portfolio shift has been Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson adding ​ ​ Citizens’ Services to her responsibilities, after NDP MLA Jinny Sims resigned ​ ​ her cabinet post in October following news that a special prosecutor was investigating unspecified allegations against her. ● Finance ministers from across Canada joined federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau in ​ ​ Ottawa this week to discuss national pharmacare, equalization, the fiscal stabilization ​ program, and the Canada Pension Plan. Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews pushed ​ ​ ​ for changes to the fiscal stabilization program — backed by Canadian premiers in their joint communique signed at this month’s Council of the Federation meeting — such as removing the $60 per capita cap, lowering the qualifying threshold for resource and non-resource revenues, and making retroactive payments to provinces underserved by the program over the last five years. Morneau said any changes to the program will not be made until next year. ○ In 2020-21, the Government of B.C. is scheduled to receive $5.6 billion from the federal health transfer, and another $2 billion in social transfers. That equates to $1,495 per capita, the same amount as Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. ● B.C. and Ontario’s information and privacy commissioners have launched a joint investigation into the cyberattack on LifeLabs that may have compromised the personal ​ ​ information of up to 15 million Canadians. The laboratory testing company first reported a potential breach in November and later confirmed the attack had affected the personal information — including names, addresses, logins and passwords, health card numbers ​ and lab tests — of millions of customers. While the company has retained outside cybersecurity consultants to investigate and help resecure its data, the provincial commissioners plan to look into the incident to determine if LifeLabs could have taken steps to prevent and contain the breach and look at ways to improve its cybersecurity and avoid further attacks. ○ "I am deeply concerned about this matter,” B.C. commissioner Michael McEvoy ​ said in a statement. “Our independent offices are committed to thoroughly investigating this breach. We will publicly report our findings and recommendations once our work is complete." ● BC Cannabis Stores are expected to have cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals for ​ ​ sale as of tomorrow but only via online sales.