NDP closes debate: Last night, the BC NDP government forced closure on Bill 14-Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act, and Bill 15 Infrastructure Projects Act. Closure simply means that no matter where we are in the process of debating the Bills, due to the Spring Session ending May 29th, the Bills will be rushed through anyway.
For Bills 14 and 15 (both of which I participated in directly asking questions during debates), we weren’t halfway through discussing the details. I have been sounding the alarm on this proposed legislation.
An authoritarian move, for authoritarian legislation. This is by no means my opinion alone.
As recently as Thursday morning, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs publicly stated, “There is overwhelming opposition from First Nations all over the province to Bills 14 and 15. With the Province’s forced closure of the Bills last night, reconciliation in BC is having a near-death experience”.
It doesn’t stop there…
The Union of BC Municipalities President, who serves all local municipalities in BC, stated recently, “In rushing the legislation so quickly and standing behind it so aggressively, the province has failed to generate support and trust from local governments and First Nations. In fact, I believe this bill (Bill 15) is eroding public trust”.
And….as I draft this letter, I am watching the Green Party MLAs debate the Premier. The leader of the BC Greens just stated that Bills 14 and 15 are “playing directly from Trump’s playbook”.
Quite a strong condemning statement from the leader of a party who has a confidence and supply agreement with the NDP, at least for now.
So what’s all the fuss about?
Well, I sat in the room for 25 hours of debate on both bills and here are several of the issues that were raised by the official opposition (Conservative Party of BC) and the third party (BC Greens).
Bill 14 –
• Agricultural land within the ALR can be severed and divided in the name of clean energy projects.
• Only a specific number of projects chosen by the government will be able to bypass Environmental Assessments. Everyone else will have to wait for long permitting times, creating an unbalanced playing field.
• Cutting swaths of land for power generation lines will be done on FN land. They have not been consulted properly in the process.
• Grazing land, guide outfitting territory, and private property will have no guardrails in place to stop encroachment adjacent to this land for clean energy projects.
Bill 15 –
• No mechanisms are in place to ensure a balance between urban and rural projects of “provincial significance”.
• The Minister admits failures in their own consultation frameworks with First Nations because she thought “interest would be low”.
• Former NDP party executives and staff members who are now very powerful lobbyists will have a strong insider voice in ensuring their projects of interest get moved to the front of the line. This admission was put on the record in debate.
Both the Conservatives and the Greens worked collaboratively and brought forward sensible amendments to both Bills aimed at protecting against these very concerns. I genuinely enjoyed working collaboratively with both Green MLAs on finding constructive ways to modify the legislation.
All amendments were voted down by the NDP.
As the official opposition, we are in favour of fast-tracking projects to unleash the potential that we have in this province. We want to see our natural resources responsibly brought to market. We want to work on building clean and conventional energy infrastructure. We’d like to see major infrastructure projects built all across BC, which will provide excellent jobs to the public, and also address some of the shortfalls in the areas of schools, hospitals, and highways.
The problem is, you can’t rush the very serious process of drafting a law that provides fairness and clarity, no matter what government is in power. Furthermore, let’s remove more red tape to further encourage competitive bids on major projects in all sectors of our economy, not just a few favourites hand-picked by the government. As we all know, governments have not been successful in the past at picking winners and losers.
Lastly, an interesting technical breach took place last night during the vote on Bill 14 from our perspective. A member of the NDP who voted online had a blurred background. This is, in our opinion, in clear contrast to the rules which the Speaker had created only a year prior. We argued and raised a ‘point of order’ that his vote shouldn’t have counted. It was dismissed by the speaker, and we walked out of the chamber in protest.
Both Bills were confidence votes, meaning if the government lost, we would be going to an election. It also means that the speaker (who is an NDP MLA) must vote in favour of the legislation. Both votes were passed by counts of 47-46.
As seen in this release, yesterday was not a good day for democracy in BC. This government will be ramming through half-baked projects with very little oversight.
As your MLA for Columbia River Revelstoke, I will continue to advocate for our communities, but also for good governance practices moving forward.
Written and Submitted by Scott McInnis, MLA – Columbia River-Revelstoke
