The last time an NDP government devoted a throne speech almost entirely to the idea of rallying together in a crisis, it worked well.
The first agenda-setting speech in 2020 after the pandemic hit B.C. was a call for “shoulders to the wheel” unity above all else. The Opposition responded in kind. There was minimal legislature argument over the key COVID decisions for the next year or so, until it gradually frayed.
On Tuesday, Premier David Eby tried to pull everyone together again, upping the stakes even more. The unpredictable tariff threat from the U.S. makes for “the most consequential time for B.C. since the Second World War,” the speech said. The historic bond between Canada and the U.S. has been “strained like never before and will not be easily repaired.”
So the provincial response will begin with three components:
• Trim the civil service to free up some funding for emergency relief measures as needed.
• Manufacture explosive growth in the economy by finding new markets and trading partners on an emergency basis.
• Counterattack the U.S. as necessary with strategic provincial moves, even while recognizing a trade war will “devastate” both sides of the border.
A degree of unanimity would be a big help, and the unity trend is already well underway. Flags and personal boycotts of the U.S. abound.
The concept of patriotism eroded dramatically as the initial unity against COVID-19 started to fail, and as antipathy to the Trudeau government took hold. It’s back with a vengeance now. Nothing brings people together like an attack from outside.
It’s maintaining that unity over an indefinite period that’s going to be tough. Particularly when the NDP has to swerve suddenly from the course it has been setting for seven years to accomplish some of the measures.
The mild hiring “pause” announced last week, for instance, comes over years of bulking up the civil service to deliver more services to more people more often. And the signal it sends to public-sector unions starting bargaining in six weeks (the good times are over) is not what they are used to hearing.
The sudden desperate interest in growing the economy comes after years where focusing on social issues took precedence over encouraging commercial activity to create wealth. Even former NDP premier Glen Clark noted the NDP government’s indifference to nurturing economic growth.
He told a business council last year the government needed to slow its roll on land-use changes and other social priorities in order to give business time to recover productivity and catch up.
The throne speech stressed the need to speed up permitting, attract investment and increase manufacturing.
“This is particularly important for our hard-hit forestry sector.”
The government said the B.C. Timber Sales agency is being reformed to respond to the challenge.
But the last time the NDP turned its eyes on that agency, four years ago, it involved taking huge volumes of old-growth timber out of the harvest.
And over the course of multiple different governments, the forest industry is now just a leftover vestige of what it used to be.
Overall, the new emphasis on instant economic growth goes against the NDP grain in a variety of different ways. They have to get wildly enthusiastic about encouraging business growth, something they usually take for granted.
It will also involve a lot of tax dollars. Many of the 18 major programs now fast-tracked are publicly financed, as are a third of the 1,001 major projects now on the inventory list. Private investment in Canada is slumping day by day.
There’s a similar contrast between the new game plan and the NDP re-election campaign, which has been completely overtaken by events. Breaking the promise on the ill-considered $1,000 vote-buying gimmick is just the start. The even bigger promise of a middle income tax cut is now on hold as well.
Conservative Leader John Rustad said the NDP emphasis on a trade war that at this point may or may not happen is designed to take the attention of the government’s failures in affordability and other domestic problems.
“David Eby is looking for an enemy. He’s looking for an excuse.”
The speech stressed how off-guard the government was caught.
The tariff threat was “unimaginable… no one could have predicted this…”
Unity will be essential to respond if the threat becomes real. But a lot of past management fall downs have to be overlooked to hold B.C.ers together over what could be a long haul.
