September 12, 2005

Surprise from the Throne

The first Throne Speech for the second term of the Campbell government may have set a record for shock value. At its conclusion uncertainty was removed over a change in the date for the next election; it will be May 12, 2009, as presently specified in legislation. Before that date, the Electoral Boundaries Commission, which must be constituted after every other election in order to re-draw boundaries to reflect population changes, will be instructed to come up with two alternative recommendations, one for boundaries on the current system and one for boundaries under BC-STV as recommended by the Citizens' Assembly. The Commission will report out in the spring of 2008. Concurrent with the November 2008 municipal elections voters will be asked whether they favour BC-STV with the boundaries specified by the Commission. To pass the vote must meet the same double majority requirements of the last try, 60% of the overall vote and a simple majority in 50% of the provincial constituencies. Once the Commission reports out on the boundaries which might be changed to allow an increase from 79 to as many as 85 constituencies with special considerations for the north, the government will fund both a yes and no committee to campaign on the referendum. No other form of electoral reform will be considered other than BC-STV. Government members will be allowed to campaign on either side but the Premier will not disclose his preference. Opposition Leader Carole James is on the record as personally opposing BC-STV.

The Throne Speech also announced, for the first time in BC history, that a special legislative committee will be struck which will be chaired by the Opposition and with a majority of its members from the Opposition. The Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture "…will be asked to work with the Pacific Salmon Forum and others to identify viable improvements to our fish farming industries that balance economic goals with environmental imperatives." That's the government's way of dealing with so many Opposition MLA's who were elected from B.C.'s Island and coastal communities. It is important to emphasize that, other than the power to travel the province and the power to call witnesses, legislative committees have absolutely no authority to decide anything. All they do is report to the legislature; government can pick and choose from their recommendations, or as frequently happens, it may completely ignore them.

Many legislature committees are established but they can do nothing unless the legislature, meaning the government majority, gives them a specific task. In addition to the Aquaculture Committee, the Throne Speech announced that the Health Committee will be asked to study childhood obesity and the Education Committee will be asked to study literacy.

The Throne Speech announced the establishment of a new "Pacific Centre for Social Innovation" that will be tasked with studying 1) what needs to be done to better serve families, 2) what is being done around the world to foster environmentally sustainable communities, and 3) how to improve voter participation in elections. The third task makes it look like the new centre might play a role in the next BC-STV campaign.

In contrast to the very specific announcements on STV, the aquaculture committee and the new social innovation centre, the Throne Speech followed the usual pattern of being very vague about the government's agenda. It said that the government's platform document, framed in terms of "five great goals", "…will serve as the central policy framework and work plan for the term ahead." It then announced that the government will ask for help in defining what it meant by its five great goals, saying:

The term "great goals" was used nine times in the Speech, appearing to have replaced "move forward" as a catchall. Could it be that a useful campaign theme was vacuous or was it simply over-reaching as discussed on StrategicThoughts in recent articles?

While the government might not be willing to say how it intended to measure performance towards its goals, the public should take its invitation for help in setting "targets, benchmarks, and indicators for measuring progress" seriously. When the full budget is tabled in February 2006, the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act requires government to table an overall strategic plan and service plans for each ministry, which includes those "targets, benchmarks, and indicators for measuring progress." Seven months after the election it won't be good enough for the government to say that it didn't know what it was talking about.