Vaughn Palmer: Expect B.C.’s new premier to axe, combine several ministries

VICTORIA — With the handover to a new government a week away, the provincial capital is awash in speculation about the elimination of some ministries and downsizing of others.

The B.C. Conservatives have indicated there will be a smaller lineup of ministries in the new cabinet to be appointed on Nov. 20. They have also signalled that the surviving ministries will face staffing reductions, though not among front-line service providers.

The Infrastructure Ministry is believed to be ticketed for oblivion come the end of next week.

Premier David Eby created it two years ago as a stand-alone ministry to oversee and expedite construction of public infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, long-term care homes and other “vertical” infrastructure (read: “buildings”) were transferred over. Roads, bridges and transit lines were left with the Transportation Ministry.

The New Democrats also chose to bypass Indigenous consultations on the measures to expedite approval of such projects, drawing protests from First Nation leaders that it was done in defiance of DRIPA legislation.

After-the-fact Indigenous consultations have stalled and key provisions in the enabling legislation for the Infrastructure Ministry remains in limbo to this day.

Still, the Infrastructure Ministry’s budget is $421 million with 150 full-time equivalent employees. The funding and essential employees will likely be sent back to the ministries they came from.

Another Eby creation, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness may also be destined for the scrap heap while its $100 million budget and several hundred employees are dispersed across government.

The job of reducing risk of wildfires, floods and other natural disasters and managing them when they happen will likely be funded at the same level under a premier from Williams Lake, who has said, “I know what it means when there’s a wildfire on the ridge outside town.”

But it would be done by returning those programs from whence they came — to the Ministry of Solicitor General and Public Safety.

The Conservatives also doubt the need for the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. John Horgan created the single ministry, immediately called Walrus, to co-manage land and resources with Indigenous nations, again under DRIPA principles.

Instead, I’m told, it has added to a permitting merry-go-round among the other resource ministries, and the ministries of Environment, and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. The budget is in the $200 million range and though the ministry doesn’t publish employment figures, there are many hundreds working for Walrus.

A stand-alone labour ministry was a must for an NDP government with its strong union ties. I doubt the Conservatives will see the need.