TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2003

In the last provincial election Gordon Campbell promised British Columbians a ‘New Era’ for local governments. In the ‘New Era’ document Campbell pledged to create a Community Charter that would give local governments “greater autonomy and better planning tools to reduce pressure on property taxes.” And, true to his word, the government delivered. Just last spring the Community Charter was proclaimed into law. In the debate the Minister in charge said that the new autonomy for local government “will be the most empowering legislation of its kind in Canada.” Now, less than six months later, the province wants to take away the authority of the Community Charter. Last week the government introduced a Bill, called the Strategic Projects Streamlining Act, that will overrule the Community Charter if the cabinet believes that a local government approval process impedes the development of new major construction projects.

As the prominent political pundit Vaughn Palmer said in his column, “Six months after the BC Liberals enacted a Community Charter to empower local government, they are providing themselves with the option of clawing back all those powers and more in the name of economic development.”

Usurping local government is bad enough but the Strategic Projects Streamlining Act doesn’t stop with the Community Charter. The SPSA will have broad sweeping powers that will override every other law with the exception of the Agricultural Land Commission Act and the Environmental Assessment Act. Section 11 of the SPSA states “If there is a conflict between this Act and any other enactment, this Act prevails.” With that caveat Campbell has the authority to ram through new construction projects irrespective of government obligations under other laws. The Community Charter, Forestry Act, Labour and Employment Standards and Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, just to name a few, can be steamrolled over by Campbell and his Ministers.

Why has the government wasted the last 2½ years of the CORE review and cuts to legislation and regulation if all it had to do was introduce a Bill like this one to supersede all levels of administration and governance?

This Act comes out of the blue, a surprise to everyone but a select special interest group who helped design it. There was no public consultation.

If I was to let loose my unbridled pro-development inner voice, in view of all the Olympic-related construction on the horizon, I might congratulate the government for designing such a free market omnibus bill, but the left side of my brain knows better.

This SPSA has been introduced under the guise of streamlining. However, the approval process for major construction projects for the 2010 Winter Games is under the auspices of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. OCOC has already moved to develop and meet the timelines for construction as outlined in the bid process. There was no indication that this Act was needed from OCOG.

Is it an unfair presumption that this Act may be using the Olympics as smoke and mirrors, that there is a hidden agenda at work here? Not that the labour movement or the people of BC might be a little gun-shy about Liberal legislation given the all out assault on collective bargaining in this province. Could the SPSA be the tool to eliminate the trade unions and their collective agreements?

Under the SPSA there is no access to information. The Freedom of Information and Privacy Act is null and void by Section 11. Any documents used by Cabinet to ram rod construction approval cannot be seen by the public through the FOI process. How about this ‘New Era’ open government? In the ‘New Era’ document Campbell promised “The most open, accountable and democratic government in Canada.” There goes another promise!

Campbell defendants point out that environment laws must be respected under the SPSA. In fact Campbell’s government has gutted protections under those laws. The new Section 14 of the Environmental Assessment Act now gives the Minister total control over defining the scope of an assessment. Campbell’s Minister of Sustainable Resource Management can now say that the scope of an assessment is outside of the Environmental Assessment Act. The only reason the Environmental Assessment Act was mentioned in Section II of the SPSA is to make the government look good.

Everyone knows that government can do what it wants. With this Bill, they have provided themselves with omnipotent power to influence and interfere with major public and private projects throughout the province, not just the Olympics.

The SPSA deliberately leaves vague the definition of words like ‘constraint’, ‘measure’ or ‘approval authority’. Normally, the sweeping powers of an Act like this one would be restrained by accompanying Regulations. Well, in this case the Minister for Deregulation has said there will be no Regulations. What you see is what you get. ‘Constraints’ to construction can mean what ever Premier Campbell and his financial backers want.

This Act takes the gold medal for political interference. It looks like just the tip of the iceberg. I’m afraid that this kind of political interference will continue.

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For further information contact Wayne Peppard at 604-291-9020.

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For further information contact 

the BCYT-BCTC office:  604-291-9020

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