On this edition of Journal, we lift the curtain on the chaos of the NDP in British Columbia.

If you are shaking your head in disbelief at some of the stunning flip-flops and bad policy choices of our current provincial government, you are not alone.

Decriminalization: a disastrous policy now abandoned.

How about the infamous Land Act, which would have given First Nations co-control with the government of all the Crown land in the province? It was so controversial that it disappeared.

Premier David Eby loudly and repeatedly said that private property wouldn’t be affected by the aboriginal title agreements being negotiated – until a judge ruled in the Cowichan decision that maybe private property could be affected after all.

Another court has now ruled that the provincial system for mineral claims staking violates their own act, saying that all BC laws and regulations MUST be consistent with the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIPA).

Interesting that David Eby was the Attorney General at that time, who helped draft those very words – “MUST be consistent.”

Realizing that the act would now have to be rewritten, Premier Eby presented changes that he said were urgent and non-negotiable – until they weren’t, and instead there would just be a 3-year pause on the troublesome phrases.

Then the Premier declared even this pause motion to be a matter of confidence, meaning the government would fall if it didn’t pass. Then lo and behold, he changed his mind yet again and announced it wouldn’t be a confidence vote.

Then the 3-month pause became 1-month and now it's completely off the table for this legislative session.

What is going on in Victoria? To help make sense of it all, Alec Lazenby, one of the top reporters covering the provincial government for the Vancouver Sun, joins us.

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

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On this edition of Journal: a closer look at the recently released forestry report that says we have to abandon the old ways of managing our forests because the status quo is not working.

That statement won’t be a surprise to anyone touched by this industry, be it municipalities, First Nations, the provincial government, or the workers and their families. More than two dozen mills have closed in the past four years, laying off more than 8,000 workers. Many companies have decided to do their capital investments elsewhere, in the US or Europe, but not in British Columbia.

The report called, “From Conflict to Care,” acknowledges that currently in forestry, “we have a complex system of legislation that is hard to comprehend, combined with bureaucratic inefficiencies such as Ministries working in silos and sometimes at cross purposes with opposing mandates. Adding to this challenge is the instability caused by election cycles which drive frequent shifts in priorities and mandates.”

That brutal assessment is not from opposition literature – it is taken word-for-word from this new report compiled by the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council done for the BC government. One of the chairs, Garry Merkel, calls it “another freakin’ review of BC forest policy.”

So, the table is set:

What can be done to save this important resource industry that used to be such a major player in our province?

Shannon Janzen, Merkel’s co-chair, a forester, and former vice-president of Western Forest Products, believes there is a way. First of all, we must accept the status quo is broken; then, after broad consultations, come up with a radical new model that works in 2026.

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this edition of Journal, mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam walks us through some of the failures we are seeing in our governments at all levels and some of the solutions.

Brought up by his mother after his father died, Brad remembers the importance to the family when she finally got a union job, good wages, and good hours. Brad went on to study at the University of Victoria before taking a job in communications with the United Steelworkers.

You can see with his personal experience he would be a natural fit with the NDP of British Columbia, a social democratic party. So how surprising was it when, last year, Brad West took a swing at the NDP government by saying they were more interested in pronouns than jobs?

In other words, ideology over workers.

Recently in another op-ed, the mayor elaborated. This time, about how governments in general are failing and frustrating their citizens.

People, he says, want results not announcements. Service, not ribbon cutting.

Based on his successful time in municipal government – elected as a councillor in 2008, the youngest mayor elected in Port Coquitlam’s history in 2018, then re-elected by acclamation, meaning no one chose to run against him. Based on that alone, his ideas are worth listening to.

For instance:

Less high school behaviour in the legislature, more listening to citizens and their needs.

Fewer studies and more action.

And stop overspending taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars.

Mayor Brad West joins us to outline a road to recovery and a way for politicians to regain the public trust.

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.