Photo courtesy: Canadian Press

By Cheryl Jahn

New BC NDP-Green deal: History repeating itself

Dec 19, 2024 | 2:47 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It wasn’t all that long ago, that the Leader of the BC NDP, David Eby, and the Leader of the BC Greens, Sonia Furstenau, were adversaries. Fast forward two months and the two parties have inked the “Term Sheet for the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord.” History repeating itself, according to BC Conservative MLA, Sheldon Clare.

“Really what has happened is the Greens have made the same mistake that they made in 2017. They agreed to accept the NDP, and do a bunch of things that the NDP was going to do anyway. And what’s really happened is all those poor people out there who thought they were voting for Greens actually found out now that they voted for the NDP.”

The newest Agreement in Principle is seven pages long, setting out directives around things like health care, housing and the list goes on. One section sets out goals for the environment, which commits the government to “… work with the [BC Green Caucus] to undertake a review of BC Forests with First Nations, workers, unions, business and community to address concerns around sustainability, jobs, environmental protection and the future of the industry.”

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The last thing BC needs right now, according to the Council of Forest Industries.

“There have been a lot of reviews, as you well know, in forestry the past several years even, but particularly the last couple of years since the NDP has been in office,” says Linda Coady, President and CEO of COFI. “And one of the big issues is there have been so many reviews that there often hasn’t been a chance to implement the existing recommendations from those reviews.”

Premier David Eby swore in new MLA Ravi Parmar as the Forests Minister on November 8. Parmar has been quoted more than once that he will not be a minister who spends the next six months creating the next flashy framework for forestry. Let him do it, says Coady.

“We think his focus on implementing action is the way to go. I think the sector as a whole, big companies, small companies, communities, labour, we’re all ready to rally around that and hopefully, he can play through on it. And you know, in our statement yesterday, we’re expecting him to put forward his plan.”

The last time the Green Party partnered with the NDP they had conditions, including proportional representation, putting Site C on hold and killing the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.

“They got nothing in this particular agreement,” says Clare. “The only things that the Greens got was inter-urban transit on Highway One and Highway 19, which is the west coast of Vancouver Island. And I think between Golden and Kamloops. And that’s it. And that’s pretty minor to sell your soul for. ”

Both Coady and Clare say it will be a very interesting Natural Resources Forum in January, where typically industry issues very strong messages to the government officials present.