May 16, 2002

Closure Ends Year One
Expect a Terrible Year Two

One year is down and three are yet to go before the May 17, 2005, election. In his first year, Premier Gordon Campbell has demonstrated an outrageous abuse of power. With 77 of 79 seats in the legislature, his House Leader has threatened to use closure to cut off debate and pass some of his most controversial bills by May 30th.

On the evening of May 16, 2001, election night, Gordon Campbell proclaimed that there was no official opposition. He thereby set parliamentary history by denying the existence of the Official Opposition - the speaker proceeded to do his bidding. On May 15, 2002, the Government House Leader, Gary Collins, rose in the legislature and announced that "time allocation" would apply to all but two bills currently on the order paper so that they can be passed by May 30th. Just two days after introducing three controversial labour bills, government has said it will invoke closure to pass 7 bills in the 6 remaining legislative sitting days that are scheduled before summer adjournment.

An estimated 170,000 workers will submit new WCB claimants over the next twelve months. Those sick and injured workers will have their benefits reduced by almost 10% by a government that is preparing to use closure to impose its will and impose the bill that will cut those benefits. Seven other bills including the two controversial welfare bills will also be forced through the BC Legislature with the use of closure.

In year one Premier Campbell has shown whose side he is on. It is not surprising that he is ending the first year with yet more outrageous abuse of parliament. On June 6, 2001, the first full day after the government was sworn in, tax cuts were announced that are a shift of income from the bottom to the top. They were followed by cuts in welfare, cuts for injured workers, larger class sizes, higher tuition fees, fewer hospital beds, and attacks on seniors, including no coverage for podiatrists, the closure of 3,100 residential care beds and reduced Pharmacare coverage. In the days before last year's election any suggestion by the NDP that a Campbell government would slash and burn services was met with heated denials and the waving of NED - the Campbell New Era Document of now broken promises.

Lest anyone think that year one was bad, just wait for the terrible events yet to unfold in year two. Larger class sizes with fewer counselors, fewer librarians, fewer ESL classes and fewer home school workers will not be experienced until September. The Campbell governments much awaited and several times postponed energy policy which promises to increase electricity rates by 30-40% will likely be released in the government's second year. Radical changes to Pharmacare will take effect January 1, 2003, even though there has been no public consultation on how the proposed income test will (or will not) work. Some communities will be hard pushed to survive in the second year of the Campbell government as changes to forestry de-link fiber supply and local mills. A rewritten Residential Tenancy Act will give tenants less protection in Campbell's second year as Premier - another power shift that hurts those with less. On top of those policy and legislative changes, year two of the Campbell government will see the implementation of a second year of cuts as already defined in the so called "service plans".

The government has refused to release its internal documents that disclose its projections on the consequences of its cuts. In year two of the Campbell government, the public will see and feel those consequences. In the November, 2002, elections, 18 months after the Campbell landslide, it will be interesting to see how many municipal politicians campaign on the basis of their close ties with the Premier.