Trump in the drivers' seat as B.C. buckles up for new legislative session

The parliamentary mace, front, is seen encased in a clear box inside the newly renovated legislative assembly in Victoria, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press)

When British Columbia’s Legislature opens for the first time in nine months on Tuesday, the driving force behind the province’s politics and the government’s upended agenda will be thousands of kilometres away.

New Lt.-Gov. Wendy Cocchia will deliver a throne speech outlining the NDP government’s goals, opening the legislative session against the backdrop of economic uncertainty and the looming threat of whopping tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The speech will lay out the NDP government’s “plan to defend British Columbians in these uncertain times and secure a brighter future for everyone who calls this place home,” said B.C. Premier David Eby in a Family Day statement on Monday.

The provincial government will expand affordable child care, help people buy their first family home and get a family doctor, crack down on organized crime and keep repeat offenders off the streets, Eby said.

“And we will accelerate our work to build a sustainable, clean economy with good, family-supporting jobs so generations to come can keep the family tree firmly planted here in British Columbia,” he said.

Already, at least one flagship promise is out the window, with last week’s cancellation of the government’s $1,000 grocery rebate by Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, who said the government would also have to “revisit” its election vow for a middle-income tax cut in future budgets.

B.C. was facing an “unpredictable” future she said on Thursday.

Opposition Leader John Rustad said the government should have been on this problem shortly after Trump won the U.S. election.

“Should we have had that honour of forming government, I would have been in Washington back in November,” Rustad said.

“You have to understand how Trump negotiates. This is how he negotiates, right, with a lot of bluster and threats,” he said.

But Bailey said last week that the impact of Trump’s threatened tariffs were impossible to predict, with B.C.‘s budget scheduled for release on March 4, the very day that a pause on Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian exports expires.

“At a time when Canadians across the country are pulling together, our number 1 priority is to be ready to defend the people of B.C. no matter what comes next,” Bailey said.

Bailey said that part of the government’s response to the tariff threats will be to protect current resources, making sure that provincial investments are working as intended for the people of B.C.

“For the budget next month, it’s impossible to predict what the tariffs may be, let alone their impacts. That makes it very challenging to know what we need to have at the ready to deliver targeted help for impacted businesses, people, workers to get through what could be an incredibly difficult time.”

Eby was in Washington, D.C., last week along with Canada’s other premiers and met with top White House officials.

He told media afterwards that he believed there are ways the two countries can work together on Trump’s demands to increase prosperity on both sides of the border.

“But what’s on offer right now, unfortunately, is continued threats of tariffs, uncertainty. It’s not clear what the objectives are, and in that atmosphere, British Columbia only has one choice, which is to look to other customers and that’s what we’re going to do.”

House Leader Mike Farnworth told reporters last week the tariff threats are the “number 1 priority” facing the government, which clung to power with a one-seat majority in the fall election.

The NDP holds 47 seats and faces a large opposition party for the next four years with the Conservative Party of BC holding 44 seats. The BC Green Party holds two seats and agreed to support the NDPs on confidence votes.

Rustad said he expects this legislative session to be a “rather raucous time.”

“We have a lot of new MLAs and they are going to be eager to hold the government to account,” he said.

Key issues will be fentanyl, the borders “and what’s going on with Trump,” Rustad said.

“He wants the borders protected. He wants to stop the flow of fentanyl. And guess what? That’s what I want too.”

Mike De Jong, who was an MLA representing the B.C. Liberal Party, then BC United between 1994-2024, said that while the province has lived through other crises, this one is different.

“There is a level and type of uncertainty out there that is very concerning and will impact potentially, Canada, but we do need to put that in perspective when we talk about uncertainty,” De Jong said, referencing the 2001 attack of the World Trade Center in New York, the global financial crisis and the pandemic.

A key difference is that B.C. is economically weaker now with a record deficit, said De Jong, who’s currently seeking nomination for the federal Conservative Party.

“A big difference is, and this is true provincially and federally, the government’s ability to step in and address that uncertainty, perhaps provide fiscal supports is very, very much diminished and compromised,” De Jong said.

“As much as I deplore and find insulting and unacceptable the tactics and language of President Trump, the fact that we are in such a weakened position today to respond is the fault of governments in Canada.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.

Marcy Nicholson, The Canadian Press