British Columbia Minute: Issue 126

British Columbia Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of British Columbia politics.

📅 This Week In British Columbia: 📅

• Premier David Eby says the latest trade negotiations exposed what he sees as the broader goals of the Trump administration, particularly efforts to limit Canada’s ability to pursue trade with other countries. Eby called the US demands unacceptable and said BC will stand behind Canada’s response, including the planned retaliatory tariffs. He also defended the province’s decision to keep American alcohol off liquor store shelves, tying the policy to ongoing US restrictions on Canadian forestry products. Eby said BC is prepared to consider additional measures and will work with Ottawa to support industries and workers affected by the trade dispute. Business leaders, meanwhile, urged governments to keep negotiating while reducing internal trade barriers, expanding export markets and strengthening Canada’s competitiveness. Opposition leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay called for a clear government plan and suggested the legislature may need to be recalled to address what she described as an economic emergency.
  
  
• The provincial government has ended public access to the BC government directory, an online listing of government employees' names, departments, work emails, and phone numbers that has existed in some form since the 1930s. The Government claims the directory had become a cybersecurity risk, saying it fends off hundreds of attacks each day and that AI tools are making it easier to harvest public information for targeted scams, and says law enforcement, including the RCMP, advised shutting it down. Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael Harvey called the removal a "very serious transparency issue", noting that public bodies are funded by the public and must remain accountable to it, and that employees' work contact information is not considered private personal information under BC legislation. Langley-Willowbrook MLA Jody Toor, the government services critic, said protecting privacy should never be a reason to operate behind closed doors, arguing the public has a right to understand how government is structured and who is responsible for decisions. The Government says it will publish an updated directory page soon, limited to senior executive contacts and general ministry, service, and media contacts.
  
  
• Business groups and non-profits are stepping up pressure on the provincial government to scrap its planned expansion of the 7% provincial sales tax to services such as accounting, engineering, and private security, one week after an all-party legislative committee recommended repealing the measure. The expansion, announced in February's budget, takes effect October 1st and is expected to bring in $284 million by the end of the fiscal year. The Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia says 90% of businesses it surveyed expressed concern, and its president, Jeremy Heighton, wants the tax repealed entirely, warning that layering taxes on top of each other eventually makes businesses unviable. Provident Security CEO Michael Jagger called the change a "bureaucratic nightmare" that offers no value and will see costs fall on consumers. Non-profits say they are affected too, with Vancouver-based Megaphone Magazine warning that taxing bookkeeping services adds pressure to a sector already facing stagnating funding. Asked about the committee's report, Premier David Eby said no one is happy about taxes and argued his government has worked to reduce costs such as the carbon tax, car insurance, and hydro rates. 
  
  
• A proposed modern treaty between the Province and five Vancouver Island First Nations is drawing concern over the transfer of almost 20 square kilometers of government land, including two provincial parks, a university campus, and prime Victoria real estate, to Indigenous ownership. The Te'mexw treaty, under negotiation for more than 30 years, would transfer 30 plots of land to the Songhees, Scia'new, Malahat, T'Sou-ke, and Snaw-Naw-As Nations, including Sooke Mountain Provincial Park, Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park, and Hatley Park, home to Hatley Castle and Royal Roads University. The Songhees Nation would take ownership of the Hatley lands and would allow Royal Roads to buy the part of the property that houses its campus, with the nation's lawyer saying the Songhees are asking several million dollars for it. Provincial officials say the parks will remain open to the public, but acknowledge they may be closed by First Nations for conservation or traditional activities for part of the year, as has happened at Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Caroline Elliott, an academic specializing in Indigenous self-governance and runner-up in the recent BC Conservative leadership race, argues the parks belong to all British Columbians and questions transferring land owned collectively by Canadians to a 600-member nation. The treaty is scheduled to go to the Province's Treasury Board this fall, followed by ratification votes by the five nations and the Legislature, with implementation expected in three to five years.
  
  
• The provincial government will likely lose about half of what it paid for a notorious single-room occupancy building on Vancouver's Granville Street, according to urban planner and retired architect Michael Geller. BC Housing bought the former Howard Johnson Hotel and a neighbouring development site in 2020 for about $55 million, well above their combined assessed value of $38.6 million at the time. Today the two sites are assessed at roughly $27.5 million, with the building itself, now known as the Luugat, assessed at $22.2 million after six years as supportive housing, several fires, and more than 200 floods. The building still houses a single tenant a month and a half after the Province promised to close it, at an operating cost of more than $100,000 a month. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said taxpayers "have been hosed" on the deal and urged the Province to stop repeating failed policies, while the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says taxpayers are left to cover the difference. The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs says BC Housing paid less than an independent appraisal it has not disclosed, and that plans for the property's future are still in development.
   

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