The prospect of Premier David Eby calling a snap election continues to loom over B.C., but is the province’s election authority prepared to handle it, one to two whole years before it was scheduled to take place?

Elections BC is currently preparing for just that, but a delay in funding has been holding back its operations.

The authority saw this coming at the beginning of the year. Back in February, the organization requested $50 million in supplemental funding to start getting ready, but it was denied.

Fast-forward to September, and Chief Electoral Officer Shipra Verma made the request again. In a letter to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, she said they require at least four to six months of lead time to get “election-ready.” The consequences of not having that time, she said, include “significant challenges in election delivery and ensuring integrity of the democratic process.”

The Standing Committee was meant to meet Monday to discuss the request, but the meeting was cancelled when it didn’t reach quorum.

This means the funding still hasn’t been approved.

Hamish Telford, political commentator with the University of the Fraser Valley, says Elections BC will find a way to make it work.

“Election agencies do have to be ready to go at any time,” Telford said.

However, he says, the timing couldn’t be much worse.

“To have a provincial election thrown at them at the last minute at the same time as local elections would be a real strain on the agency,” he said.

“They would be able to do it, but it would be a heck of a month for them and for their employees.”

In a statement to CityNews, Elections BC said, “Under the Election Act, we have a provision with spending authority when an unscheduled event occurs. If an unscheduled event was to occur, Elections BC would transparently report out on the total cost of the election as per our regular practice.”

That means that basically, if a snap election were called, they have permission to spend whatever they need to spend to make it happen.

Notwithstanding the price tag, opposition parties think Eby is poised to make a mistake.

“It’s purely political. David Eby knows that he’s on the ropes. Just 4 months ago, they were 10 points down,” said B.C. Conservative John Rustad.

“That hasn’t changed, it’s just what he was compared to. Now that we have a different leader, and we’re going to be able to show a united party, I actually think those numbers go back to where they were at last spring.”

Some experts on B.C. politics agree.

“The question is, to use a phrase from Marcus Aurelius, one of the Roman emperors, ‘Is it necessary?’” said Ross Pink, professor of politics, law, and the environment with Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

“And the public possibly could say, well, this election was called prematurely, it’s not necessary, it’s going to cost millions of dollars to run an election campaign.”

With campaigning appearing to have started already with funding announcements and jabs at opponents, we may not have to wait long to find out whether the province is ready for another election.