The B.C. Greens said Monday their deal to support the government on key confidence votes is no more, paving the way for a potentially precarious spring session with the NDP only having a one-seat majority.

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Green Leader Emily Lowan said the decision to rip up the co-operation and responsible government accord, also known as CARGA, was made after the government failed to complete two-thirds of the actions the NDP had committed to in March of last year when it was signed.

That includes the $15 million to expand community health centres and expanding public transit along certain corridors, such as the Sea to Sky Highway.

“This agreement began as an opportunity to stabilize an NDP government and deliver shared priorities for British Columbians. CARGA was a commitment not just to us, but to British Columbians who wanted real action on what matters to them and a stable government in a deeply troubling time,” Lowan said.

“The Greens upheld our side of the agreement, voted confidence where it was specified, and there were real results for British Columbians that came out of this. But when it came to deliver action on community health centres, transit in the Sea to Sky, or public coverage for psychologists, the NDP simply failed.”

The annual review of the agreement began in the fall after the election of Lowan as the leader of the party. She replaced Sonia Furstenau, who stepped down a year ago.

Green MLAs Rob Botterell and Jeremy Valeriote said they will decide how to vote on a case-by-case basis, although they have largely been doing that already outside of confidence votes.

Attorney General Niki Sharma, who had been leading the negotiations for the renewal of the deal for the NDP, said the impasse came down to disagreements over what constituted a confidence vote.

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“I do have to say that the Greens walking away this morning does leave it more uncertain in the house,” she said.

“The one party that benefits is the Conservatives. And we think that British Columbians do not want an election right now. They want us to work together on the priorities that we have that make their lives better.”

Although the government is unlikely to fall because of the end of the deal with the Greens, the NDP’s one-seat majority leaves them vulnerable if any of their MLAs are unable to vote.

Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Grace Lore and Vancouver-Strathcona MLA Joan Phillip have both received treatment for medical problems over the past year, with Lore taking an extended period of time off for cancer treatment.

Premier David Eby seemed confident while speaking to reporters before the Green’s announcement that he has the votes to push ahead with his spring legislative agenda as the government gets prepared to table its budget on Feb. 17.

But he seemed to be unaware that Lowan and her MLAs had decided to rip up the accord and would be putting out a statement to that effect mere minutes after he finished speaking.

“I think it would be exciting to have a provincial, federal and municipal elections all in the same week. But I don’t see any prospects of that. We have the votes we need, including members that have been struggling with serious clinical diagnoses and treatment,” said Eby.

“We are engaging with the Greens, we’re trying to find a path with them where we can find co-operation. We will do that and I don’t have any update other than to say we are still engaged with the Greens.”

David Black, a Royal Roads political communications professor, said it is clear that negotiations had broken down well before the official announcement that the deal was dead.

But he said the Greens are unlikely to want to force the province into an election.

“The CARGA may be ended, but the reasons for the Greens preference to keep the NDP in power remain,” said Black.

“The Greens are in a rebuilding phase. Their leader’s outside the legislature. They had a disastrous election in October 2024 and they still have a lot of work to do.”

Green strategist Jillian Oliver said the end of the deal is, in many ways, a natural evolution of the NDP getting comfortable with being a majority government.

As for her own party, Oliver said Lowan has come in and brought a different tone to the party and it has become clear the government wasn’t willing to budge on some of her key priorities.

“It cements them more as a traditional opposition party, where they’re going to be using more stick, I think, than carrot, to try to pressure the government to change course or to do certain things,” she said.

“I think that fits with a sort of different tone that Lowan has compared to previous leaders, that’s kind of much more combative and using stronger language and taking stronger positions and having more of an activist approach.”

NDP strategist Jeff Ferrier, founding partner of Framepoint Public Affairs, agreed with Oliver’s analysis, arguing Lowan’s positioning is one of the key reasons for the breakdown.

He said at the end of the day, the end of the deal doesn’t change much.

“The B.C. NDP has the votes it needs to advance its agenda, and the Greens lose what little structured influence they had on the provincial government,” said Ferrier.

The B.C. Conservative’s interim leader, Trevor Halford, said he isn’t surprised about the breakup, joking that the fact it happened before Valentine’s Day saves the Greens and the NDP having to spend money on a card and chocolate for each other.

He accused the NDP of having “railroaded” the Greens just as he argues they’ve done with British Columbians.

“We’ve seen the relationship broken down because the trust has eroded with his government. And I think it’s not just the Greens that have lost trust, it’s everyday British Columbians,” he said.