Hit the ground running? The NDP is stumbling out of the starting gate

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby appointed a new cabinet Monday with priorities much the same as the priorities of the government that almost lost the election.

“The top priorities will be bringing down costs for families, strengthening health care, making communities safer, and growing the economy so everyone feels the benefits,” said Eby in a news release.

When Eby took office as premier two years ago, his priorities were addressing the cost of living, housing affordability, access to health care, public safety and a sustainable economy.

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He also promised to deliver “results that people can see and feel and touch and experience” before the next election.

The Eby government spent billions, launched myriad programs, held uncounted news conferences, and never wavered in promising results.

When the election rolled round another set of results told the story: The New Democrats came within one seat of being reduced to a minority government and it secured that one seat by a mere 22 votes.

Surprising that it took the premier an entire month to put together an agenda that is identical to the first. Surprising, too, that he won’t be ready to release mandate letters for the new cabinet until the new year.

The letters have publicly disclosed the marching orders for cabinet ministers since being first introduced by Premier Gordon Campbell almost 25 years ago.

By delaying the release, Eby contradicted his own postelection vow to “hit the ground running.” More like a stumble out of the gate by a premier who is struggling to put together the details of a second-term agenda.

The premier did come up with a novel solution to the challenge of designating winners and losers among the 46 NDP MLAs.

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The new cabinet has 27 members, including 23 ministers (at a total of about $180,000 apiece) and four junior ministers of state ($160,000). Another 14 MLAs were named parliamentary secretaries at $137,000 each, for 41 appointments in all.

There remain a half dozen posts, each with an increase on the basic MLA pay of $120,000 as well: Speaker, deputy speaker, deputy chair, caucus chair, whip and deputy whip. In the Eby government, everyone gets sent home with a trophy.

Eby is not the first premier to try to secure loyalty by handing out appointments. He is the first in memory to have rewarded every one in his caucus with premium pay on Day 1.

The ministers in charge of Eby’s focus on affordability, health-care delivery and public safety are all new to their portfolios: Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, Health Minister Josie Osborne and Public Safety Minister Gary Begg.

Bailey’s first task should be sorting out how to deliver the NDP’s promised cost of living rebate of up to $1,000 a family.

Osborne has to move beyond previous health minister Adrian Dix’s obsession with statistics, and actually unclog emergency rooms and keep them open.

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Begg, whose narrow victory in Surrey-Guildford secured the NDP majority, must turn his attention to the imminent handover of policing from the RCMP to the new Surrey Police Service. Many challenges remain though the Nov. 29 date is said to be fixed.

Another key to the new government is the return of NDP veteran Mike Farnworth to the job of house leader. No one knows the house rules better than him, and he actually likes the job. He’ll also be transportation minister.

The best-connected member of the new cabinet on a personal level must be the new minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, Christine Boyle.

She’s a personal friend of the Eby family and godparent to their son Ezra. Cailey Lynch, the premier’s spouse, intervened on behalf of “Auntie Chris” in Boyle’s fight for the NDP nomination against Andrea Reimer in Vancouver-Little Mountain.

Afterward Reimer congratulated herself on coming within 12 votes of defeating “a candidate who had the premier’s wife behind her and a three-month head start.”

Boyle, who gave up a seat on Vancouver city council to run provincially, inherits one of the toughest balancing acts in the new cabinet, “building partnerships with Indigenous communities.”

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The Eby government fumbled the relationship earlier this year. It had to withdraw amendments to the Land Act that would have enabled joint management of public land and resources with B.C.’s more than 200 Indigenous nations.

Eby has promised not to reintroduce the amendments. Yet he’s also said the government will move on partnerships with Indigenous nations on land and resources.

Boyle will have to square that circle along with Randene Neill. The former broadcaster was appointed the new minister of water, land and resource stewardship.

The previous lands minister, Nathan Cullen, was defeated in the election. The previous Indigenous relations minister, Murray Rankin, chose not to run again.

Those and other cabinet appointments come with an asterisk. In the first Eby government, power was so centralized in the premier’s office that ministers were at times reduced to functionaries.

More than a few New Democrats are hoping that Eby will delegate responsibility to his ministers, as did his predecessor John Horgan. Otherwise the second Eby government will be driven by the same “David-knows best” rule as the first.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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