British Columbia Minute: Issue 127

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

📅 This Week In British Columbia: 📅

• The BC Conservative caucus has seen five MLAs leave the party in the last two weeks. Richmond-Bridgeport MLA Teresa Wat and Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day both quit on August 26th - Wat saying Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay had questioned her loyalty to Canada by calling her "CCP" in an alleged group chat and failed to apologize, and Day saying he had lost confidence in the judgment, conduct, and ethical standards of Findlay's leadership. They follow former finance critic Peter Milobar, who left on August 14th citing a lack of ideological alignment with Findlay, Ian Paton, who announced on August 24th that he and Milobar intend to form a new, more moderate right-of-centre party, and Rosalyn Bird, who quit on August 25th, warning against divisive leadership. Reann Gasper also resigned her Abbotsford-Mission seat on August 22nd so that Findlay can run in the resulting by-election. In total, 12 of the 44 MLAs elected as Conservatives in 2024 have now left the party.
  
  
• The provincial government's Budget 2026 appears to contain an accounting error that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars in natural gas royalties, according to an investigation by Business in Vancouver. Simon Fraser University economist Nancy Olewiler, who verified the error, says the Province failed to subtract transportation and processing costs from its gas price forecasts, overestimating its royalty revenues by roughly $500 million per year. The flawed numbers also underpin a new royalty framework slated to take effect on January 1st, 2027, which experts working with Treaty 8 First Nations calculate would capture just 11%-14% of producer profits under most price scenarios, far short of the government's stated 50% target. The chiefs of four Treaty 8 First Nations hand-delivered a letter to Premier David Eby on July 14th, warning that the new royalty design was being chosen based on a mistake and accusing the government of "stacking mistake upon mistake upon mistake". Eby said at an August 25th press conference that he was not familiar with any error in the budget related to oil and gas revenues.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Premier David Eby is urging the federal government to consider non-tariff retaliation against the US, as Canada prepares to impose dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on September 8th in response to new 50% American tariffs on a range of Canadian goods. Speaking in Vancouver on August 25th, Eby suggested Ottawa reconsider its planned purchase of US fighter jets, potentially worth billions of dollars, and speed up the phase-out of American thermal coal exports through a Metro Vancouver port facility. BC's forestry industry expects to be among the hardest-hit sectors, with more than $4 billion in Canadian lumber products caught by the new tariffs on top of existing softwood duties. The province is Canada's largest lumber producer and exported about $6.7 billion in wood and forest products to the US in 2024, but more than 20 mills have closed across BC since 2023, including three in the last month. Industry advisor David Elstone called it the worst situation the sector has ever faced.
  
  
• The provincial government has set the maximum allowable rent increase for 2027 at 2.2%, down slightly from 2.3% this year, as it continues to tie the annual cap to inflation. For a unit renting at $2,000 a month, the maximum increase works out to $44 per month, or $528 per year. The cap takes effect on January 1st, 2027, and landlords can only raise rent once every 12 months, with a minimum of three months notice. Housing Minister Christine Boyle claims the Province's measures to increase supply, restrict short-term rentals, and limit foreign investment have contributed to a 4.5% decrease in average asking rents, with five BC cities among the 15 largest year-over-year declines in purpose-built rental rents in Canada, led by Abbotsford, where rents fell 12.4%. Before 2019, landlords could raise rents by inflation plus an additional 2% each year. The cap does not apply to commercial tenancies, non-profit housing where rent is geared to income, co-operative housing, and some assisted-living facilities.
  
  
• Elections BC has granted in-principle approval for an initiative petition seeking the repeal of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, the law that affirms the application of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in BC law. The petition's proponent is Harman Bhangu, transportation critic for the Opposition BC Conservatives. To succeed, the petition must collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in each of the province's 93 electoral districts - Elections BC will issue it on October 26th, and signature sheets must be submitted by January 25th, 2027. A successful petition would be referred to the Legislature, which could introduce the draft repeal bill or refer the petition and bill for a vote, though the process is not binding. The law has become a flashpoint since a BC Appeal Court ruling last year found provincial mining rules inconsistent with it, and Premier David Eby abandoned a plan to suspend the law in April after strong opposition from First Nations leaders. Elections BC has approved 14 initiative petitions since 1995, and only one, the 2010 petition against the harmonized sales tax, met the signature requirements.
   

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