Well it didn’t take long for silly season to start in Victoria.
A report commissioned by ICBC is leaked and warns that B.C. drivers will be hit by rate hikes of almost 30 per cent in the next two years if the government doesn’t dramatically overhaul the insurance corporation.
Immediately Liberal critic Andrew Wilkinson demands the NDP come clean on its plans for ICBC.
If ICBC is a mess, the Liberals have to wear it. They were in power for 16 years. It’s their mess. Surely we can give the new government a few weeks, or months to figure out what to do.
Before we get too far down the road of blaming politicians for ICBC maybe we should look in the mirror.
We want low rates. We don’t want our kids to pay exorbitant rates because they are at high risk to have accidents.
Too many people still talk or text while driving. B.C. drivers have also balked at no fault insurance, which would dramatically reduce claims.
The ICBC story is just the tip of the iceberg.
New Democrats have been opposing all that’s Liberal for 16 years, and now they have the responsibility to fix everything from health care to affordable housing to the opioid crisis.
Premier Horgan has said he gave the toughest job to Judy Darcy. She has been tasked with creating a new ministry to tackle mental health and addiction services. Extremely difficult issues to manage.
Outgoing Health Minister Terry Lake argued that a secretary of state under Health Minister Adrian Dix would have been a better fix.
A new ministry will create a whole new bureaucracy which may be at odds with the existing ministry and health officials will find themselves having to answer to two ministers instead of one.
I believe Dix and Darcy to be smart, capable people who will be tireless in their efforts to make this work, but it will be a huge challenge.
Every MLA wants to be in cabinet, but Katrine Conroy has been handed a minefield appointment as minister of children and family development. Whenever a child dies in care or having just aged out of care the minister is blamed.
I think that’s very unfair, but so is politics. Ministers can make a difference, and they need a lot of support from the premier and the finance minister. John Horgan has promised a lot, and a lot of expensive things.
Will Dix and Darcy and Conroy get the money they need for more support for mental health and addiction services?
We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars and we haven’t even got to building more affordable housing and tackling homelessness.
Then there’s the not-so-small matter of getting rid of Medical Services Plan payments which are a form of very unfair taxation, but bring in over two billion dollars a year to the provincial treasury.
New Democrats waited 16 long years to become government. Let’s give them a bit of time.
The list doesn’t end there. The new premier has to decide what to do with the Site C dam project. More than two thousand workers are holding their breath on that.
Horgan has promised to get rid of tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges. That’s millions more and while he’s hinted at stopping construction of the Massey Tunnel replacement, it’s an issue that has must be addressed and it will be an expensive one.
The premier has also said the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge is essential. Now the feds will be asked to come to the table and help but even if the surplus the Liberals claim to be leaving is real it won’t be nearly enough to do all the things the NDP has promised.
Oh yes, and $10-a-day childcare brought in over 10 years. I said the New Democrats have been waiting 16 long years to be in a position to do what they think the Liberals have neglected.
They should be wished well.
The Liberals should also give them a bit of space to show what they can do.
Bill Good is a veteran broadcaster currently heard daily on News 1130.
@billgood_news
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