The Liberals struggle to put highlights in this year's throne speech

By Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun
February 17, 2009

The B.C. Liberal government's throne speech for 2009 was a muted affair, particularly for an election year.

There was the usual combination of incomprehensible boilerplate -- "a new prism of trust" -- and over-the-top rhetoric -- "a flame that burns deep in the human heart."

Then a lengthy recitation-cum-defence of Liberal policy-making, including such major sources of controversy as the carbon tax, the softwood lumber agreement, and public-private partnerships.

The government-authored text hurled one gauntlet at the feet of the Opposition as the New Democratic Party prepares its election platform. "Now is not the time," the Liberals assured us, putting words into the mouth of the lieutenant-governor, "to raise the minimum wage."

But the telling aspect of the speech was in the details -- or lack of them -- in the government's own list of highlights.

Last year, the package, spread over two press releases and eight pages, highlighted 112 bulleted items, including separate "action plans" on climate change, health care, energy, first nations, education and early childhood learning.

This year the dutiful folks in government communications managed to wring three dozen highlights out of the text, but stretched mightily to do it.

Some of the items -- "a first-ever joint cabinet meeting with Alberta and Saskatchewan" -- weren't likely to crack the news lineup on the slowest day of the year.

Other "news" -- selling wood to China, building the Gateway -- was old enough to be retired to the provincial archives.

Oddly, the speech made no mention of the package of measures to fight criminal gangs, though it was new enough to warrant a second go-round, having been announced just last Friday.

There were updates on several works in progress. The B.C. pension plan, announced last fall, "will be up and running by Canada Day, 2010."

The Liberals are moving to develop a northeast transmission line, a northwest transmission line, and a northern energy corridor. More work will be done this year to advance the possibility of developing the hydroelectric dam at Site C on the Peace River.

But one much-worked-on initiative appears to be stalled. "The government is working with First Nations to develop a Recognition and Reconciliation Act that will establish a new statutory framework to further the implementation of the New Relationship," the throne speech said, giving no commitment that the text will see the light of day before the election or afterward.

"If it is able to be presented this session it will be," Premier Gordon Campbell told reporters later, then added, "if it is beyond this session, it will be."

The throne speech and press release hinted at some controversies in the making. "Government will work with the Union of B.C. Municipalities to develop new legislation to help ensure that provincial tax relief is not negated by local property tax hikes . . . . All levels of government must be equally disciplined to ensure that tax reductions at one level of government are not negated by tax increases at another."

But Campbell insisted he was not angling for a showdown with local government. "We will not be capping municipal tax rates," he said. "This is something we will be working with the municipalities on."

The Liberals also called on Ottawa to fix one of its laws. "The federal Navigable Waters Act should be repealed and replaced by legislation that meets the legitimate needs of the 21st century," the speech said, amid a discussion of regulatory barriers to fast-tracking infrastructure projects.

The Conservative government has discussed rewriting the act. But environmentalists point out that, because it protects navigable waters, the act also provides considerable protection for rivers, creeks, wetlands and other marine habitat.

Arguably, the biggest news in the throne speech was the cancellation of something that made headlines when the B.C. Liberals announced it last year.

"We had hoped to be in a position to introduce a voluntary all-day kindergarten program for five-year-olds this September," lamented the Liberals. Alas, "current economic circumstances, the need to develop appropriate space and the time to recruit qualified educators means it is not feasible in 2009."

What's left of government priorities? "Previously budgeted increases for health and education will be protected," according to the press release. "Ninety per cent of all budgeted new operating spending in the next three years will go to health care."

For the rest, well, save what you can. "Today we must brace for recession," the speech said. "How deep it might be, how long it will last, is impossible to say."

Not the most reassuring comment in a speech that was supposedly about "creating jobs, stability and confidence."

But there, at least, the Liberals were honest. They have no idea how bad things will get or how long the recession will last. Nor, I suggest, does anyone else.

vpalmer@direct.ca

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

B.C. Throne Speech targets homelessness

Government promises integrated intervention strategy and community safety initiatives in run-up to Olympics

VICTORIA -- Programs designed to house the province's most entrenched homeless population will be expanded this year, Premier Gordon Campbell promised yesterday.

With less than a year before the 2010 Winter Olympics bring the international spotlight to Vancouver, the government set out a new commitment in the Speech from the Throne to combat poverty, drug addiction and mental-health issues in the country's most impoverished neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside.

The speech, read by Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point, promised a new integrated, personalized homelessness intervention strategy and a new community safety strategy - initiatives that will be combined with expanded social housing.

Asked later for details, Mr. Campbell said the plan is not exactly new but will expand on existing programs like Victoria's Assertive Community Treatment teams that help find housing for the hardest-to-house.

Since the Victoria ACT teams started work a year ago, they have offered services to 152 clients - hardcore street people with repeated conflicts with the law - and today 131 people are still successfully housed.

The Premier said his government has marked progress in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, but added: "We have to keep on this problem."

The Throne Speech focused on the economy and job creation, as expected, warning that B.C. must brace for a recession.

It acknowledged that the global economic crisis has brought a "tornado of change" to B.C. that will shape the provincial budget to be introduced today.

"It will be marked by significant fiscal restraint, discipline and new economic stimulus that is affordable, timely and cost effective," Mr. Point stated.

Billions of dollars in infrastructure spending on roads, schools and power transmission lines will aim to create jobs in the next three months - roughly as much time as the wait for the May 12 election. As well, the government promised investments in research into green energy and health care.

The Throne Speech also carried a strong social-policy note. "Governments have an important and vital role in shaping economic change and guiding social development," Mr. Point read.

Spending on health care and education will increase, while social housing will be expanded.

As well, the government announced plans for a Recognition and Reconciliation Act, which is expected be written and passed into law in the next two months.

Since November, the province and aboriginal leaders have been quietly working toward a law to reverse a 150-year-old policy of denying the legal rights and recognition of B.C.'s aboriginal people.

A draft paper is now being circulated among the province's top native leaders with a political commitment to make it law by mid-April, when the legislature stands down for the election campaign.

The law would codify a commitment made four years ago to a "New Era" of reconciliation with the province's native communities, and it would change the legal landscape for land claims in B.C.

"It will recognize constitutionally established aboriginal rights and title, and will facilitate partnerships and prosperity through shared decision making and revenue sharing," Mr. Point read. "If we get it right, it will be a significant provincial accomplishment for our times."

Shawn Atleo, a regional chief with the Assembly of First Nations, said it would have national implications if B.C. is willing to put into law what the federal government has refused to acknowledge.

"I think the intention is to move from a lack of dignity, to a place of dignity," he said in an interview.

"If we get this right now, before the election is held, this will impact the entire country. We would have a partner in the provincial government. We could turn to the federal government and strongly suggest we need equal measures from Canada."

The Recognition and Reconciliation Act would acknowledge that the province's aboriginal populations have long lived in B.C. It's a point that seems obvious given the historical record, but the fact has been resisted by government both in the courtroom and at the negotiations table.

Carole James, the New Democratic Party Leader, said she was struck mostly by what was missing in the speech: There was no mention of the gang warfare that has consumed Metro Vancouver in recent weeks.

She said Mr. Campbell showed he has run out of ideas.

"He used a large portion of his Throne Speech to talk about conferences, meetings, studies, things he was going to look at, at a time when families are concerned about losing their jobs ... [and] about being shot in the street."

Dennis Pilon, a political scientist from the University of Victoria, said he was struck by the strong appeal in the speech to resource communities - measures designed to protect jobs in forestry, mining and energy.

"Everyone's gut feeling is that Carole James and her team are not marching to victory in the election, but this suggests the Campbell Liberals are a little worried," Dr. Pilon said. "There are targeted messages to swing ridings."