Opinion: B.C. Conservative leader sets priorities if elected premier, but first she needs to secure a seat in the house
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VICTORIA — Two months into her leadership of the B.C. Conservatives, Kerry-Lynne Findlay has begun laying out her program, starting with her first priorities if she should take office as premier.
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“I would like to do a core review of our fiscal situation, because the last NDP budget was what I call a no-hope budget,” Findlay told Black Press last week.
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“We are in debt. It was presented with a deficit, and we’ve had a downgrading of our credit rating since the budget. We need … to get out of that as quickly as possible.”
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Findlay emphasized that she has stuck with Kamloops MLA Peter Milobar as the party’s finance critic despite their unhappy clash over his wife and another family member having paid positions with the local Indigenous band.
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“I never said anything about his wife’s heritage or her Indigenous ethnicity,” she told reporter Lauren Collins. “He and I had a private conversation about the controversy … and we are on good terms with each other.”
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A newly elected Premier Findlay would act early to repeal DRIPA, the enabling legislation for the commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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She also plans to mount a stronger defence of the land-titles system governing fee-simple (private) property in B.C.
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The impetus arises out of her reading of last year’s B.C. Supreme Court decision recognizing Aboriginal title for the Cowichan Nation over a tract of public and private land in Richmond.
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“When I was travelling around the province during the campaign, it was evident that it (land title) was the number-one issue in most people’s minds. What is their tenure on the land? What does private property entail? What’s going to happen to my equity?
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“What the judge emphasized in the Cowichan decision is that neither the federal government nor the provincial government presented any argument whatsoever on the supremacy of our land-title system,” said Findlay. “There are assurances within that legislation that when you hold title to a piece of property, you are the only one with that title — meaning whatever equity is in that property is exclusively yours.
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“It is the government of the day that picks the litigation team, that instructs them what to argue and what not to argue. I believe with a different government, a different approach, we’ll start to see a difference in court outcomes.”
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Perhaps. Although hers would not be the first B.C. government to run afoul of the courts on Aboriginal rights and title.
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Yet the issue has worked well for the Conservatives, even as Premier David Eby’s fumbling undermined support for him and his government. I expect the Conservatives will continue to exploit the situation when the legislature convenes Oct. 5.
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But Findlay first needs to secure a seat in the house.
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“I would love to be across the aisle from Premier Eby,” she told Black Press. “It is my intention to lead my team in debate and show that we are a government in waiting and ready to take on the NDP in the next general election.”
