The prospect of an early election in B.C. is receding after the government announced that legislation to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) will no longer be a confidence vote.
Premier David Eby said last week that he was staking his government on the passage of the legislation, but NDP house leader Mike Farnworth says it won’t go before the legislature this week, and when it does, it won’t be a confidence measure.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!
According to Eby, who spoke inside B.C.’s Parliament Building at an unrelated press conference, the flip-flop is in part due to the situation surrounding Vancouver-Strathcona MLA Joan Phillip.
“I had a conversation with a key member of our caucus, with Joan Phillip, who I respect immensely,” Eby said in front of reporters.
“Because of her own personal history on these issues, because of her familial relations, it’s a unique position, and she expressed to me that she could not bring herself to vote for this legislation. That obviously changes the math for us.”
The provincial government would only be able to carry the vote if all of its MLAs voted in favour of the pause of DRIPA – but the math is now off because of Phillips’ choice.
Phillip is the wife of Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the longtime president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and an outspoken opponent of the provincial government’s push to suspend DRIPA.
“And no one on our team has any interest in setting British Columbians into an election. We also found that the discussion of the confidence vote was preventing members of the opposition and independent candidates from grappling with the substance of the legislation,” Eby added.
“We’re looking for support across the aisle to be able to pass it.”
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to Independent MLA Elenore Sturko, confirming that the premier’s team has reached out to her, among others.
The South Surrey MLA says that she would not have backed the suspension anyway.
“I think the pause is freezing us in uncertainty. It’s a lack of leadership that it shows,” she told 1130 NewsRadio.
“Frankly, I think it’s a slap in the face to Indigenous People.”
Sturko says that Eby is a weak leader and the province is in a difficult situation because he wants to force through the controversial legislation.
“He is, in my opinion, a very weak leader. We’re in an absolutely horrendous, untenable financial position with so much uncertainty, and he’s had every opportunity to fix this.”
She adds that the provincial government should repeal the legislation and start again, instead of asking for a suspension.
One political expert whom 1130 NewsRadio has talked to says the premier could be in trouble.
“He’s going to come out of this quite weakened, especially if the bill does not even pass in its current form,” said Hamish Telford, associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley.
He adds that Eby’s move to reach out to Independent MLAs was to be expected.
“Given the reservations in his own party, he had to look elsewhere. There are six independents. Only one or two of them could possibly have been fought, likely to support this, plus the Greens,” Telford explained.
“But the Greens also indicated that they were not interested in supporting this. The Greens don’t want to see any changes to DRIPA. So, having exhausted that and with the Conservatives aligned against it and evidently without the support in his own party, he saw that.”
Telford compares Eby’s actions to losing the standoff.
“Evidently, the feelings of some members of his caucus were strong enough that even the threat of a confidence measure and the threat of an election were not going to bring them around. So, he has blinked.”
– With files from Dean Recksiedler, Raynaldo Suarez, The Canadian Press.
