From the moment Michael Bryant’s appointment as Downtown Eastside ‘czar’ became public, it seemed clear the BC NDP government had made a mistake.
It wasn’t so much the secrecy of Bryant’s contract — though it did not help matters that Global News reported on May 12 that he’d already been on the job for three months without the public knowing.
It was everything else surrounding his role: An obscene salary juxtaposed against studying the province’s poorest neighbourhood, a vague mandate, hidden reports, a lack of allies, frustrated major partners, the whiff of controversy from his last job, a refusal to speak publicly and poor political timing, just to name a few.
Most of those are the NDP government’s fault, in crafting an untenable appointment for Bryant that dissolved into ash the moment it was exposed to the sunlight of public scrutiny.
It didn’t help that Bryant’s only backup was an incoherent defence from an embarrassing minister, in Sheila Malcolmson, who left him exposed to an unrelenting series of body blows from the Opposition until the premier threw in the towel.
That occurred Tuesday, when Premier David Eby emerged to say the controversy over Bryant had overshadowed the work. Government terminated the contract three months into a six-month term.
“Clearly it didn’t work out the way that I intended,” said Eby. “So we have to go in a different direction.”
The intention appeared to be to hire an outside legal mind, with no previous experience in the DTES, to come in with a fresh set of eyes on how to tackle the addiction, homelessness and entrenched poverty of the area.
But it failed to address the obvious question: With $600 million spent annually on services in the DTES, hundreds of experienced providers in the area, and decades of studies and reports, did the province really need to start over from scratch with an outside consultant? Surely, someone, somewhere, with some experience, internally, could do the job.
The question was exacerbated by the cost of the work. Bryant’s contract was worth up to $150,000 for six months, with the option to extend to $300,000 for the year.
His $25,000 expense account alone was twice the welfare rate, meaning he had more money to spend on Ubers, meals and hotels than those he’s consulting with on the street had to live on for a year.
It also didn’t help that the appointment caused grumbles of discontent in the civil service, where the NDP has ordered a freeze on hiring, travel, consulting work and other expenses — restrictions that do not apply, it appears, to shiny new political favourites chosen by the premier’s office.
Still, all of that may have been survivable if Bryant had launched out the gate with a robust group of validators at his side to defend both his character and mandate. People and organizations with credibility.
Instead, by the time his appointment became public, there was intense unhappiness by major providers like the Portland Hotel Society, Vancouver police and the City of Vancouver over not being formally consulted by Bryant halfway through his term.
“We’ve been told nothing,” PHS CEO Micheal Vonn said to media.
How anyone can produce a report on improving the DTES without consulting the province’s largest supportive housing provider, police department and city is a question you’d have expected Bryant to have had to answer in his final report. If he’d had to do a final report. Which he didn’t, according to his contract.
Instead, Bryant was simply hired to “provide the province with public policy advice and inter-governmental affairs services” including “engagement” with DTES groups and supporting the development of “operational frameworks to address systemic challenges in the DTES,” according to the contract.
He had to give Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Malcolmson monthly updates. None were made public. Taxpayers never saw a word of anything produced for the $75,000 spent before the plug was pulled. Bryant has refused all interviews.
There wasn’t a lot of public goodwill left to squander on the Bryant appointment anyway.
It has been more than two and a half years since Eby gathered the mayor, police chief and city leaders to a press conference where he promised to personally take ownership over transforming the DTES, after years of neglect. The neighbourhood was worse than ever, he said. But little has changed since. That left Bryant behind the eight ball from day one, thanks to a premier who had primed the public for major reforms and then subsequently delivered only another consultant.
The Opposition BC Conservatives feasted on the controversy for more than a week, hammering the government in question period (Eby let Malcolmson take most the damage) and calling the appointment “a slap in the face” to taxpayers.
At one point, Conservative MLAs rose in the legislature to suggest Bryant had abruptly departed his role as CEO of Legal Aid BC last year amid unspecified harassment allegations. Eby appeared intensely disinterested in asking Legal Aid BC (a government Crown corporation) for an explanation, which set off even more red flags. To the end, the premier claimed to have no knowledge of how one taxpayer-funded job ended before Bryant was given another.
Despite everything, Eby continued to insist Tuesday that Bryant had produced something of value during his abbreviated tenure, although he refused to say what. The premier professed to being “quite heartened and excited by the work,” whatever it was.
Bryant will be paid no severance, added the premier. “There’s no additional payment,” said Eby
Except, of course, for the ongoing cost to the NDP government’s credibility after so thoroughly botching the issue.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Lodestar Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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