VICTORIA – British Columbia premier-designate John Horgan and his cabinet will be officially sworn in on July 18.
The ceremony in Victoria will come almost three weeks after Horgan’s New Democrats and three members of the Green party ousted Christy Clark’s Liberals following 16 years in office.
The NDP and Greens defeated the Liberals in a confidence vote in the legislature.
May’s election saw the Liberals win 43 seats in the 87-seat legislature, but the NDP with 41 seats and the Greens with three seats reached an agreement to push the Liberals from office and form a minority NDP government.
Earlier this week, Horgan appointed three political veterans to head his inner circle of advisers, including well-known bureaucrat Don Wright and former Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs.
Next steps
David Zussman said first, the Premier-Designate and his team will choose ministries and ministers.
But then, he said they will need to staff those ministries, which he said is no small job and probably won’t be complete by the time the cabinet is sworn in.
“It’s very likely that some of the key hirings will be done for some of the larger and more important ministries buy I suspect a lot of people are sending their CVs in these days to some of the key people in the Premier’s office.”
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Zussman said they also have to set how cabinet will operate, a necessity for public servants waiting for direction from the new government to get to work.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Premiers will be gathering in Alberta July 18 as BC’s new government is sworn in.
Speaking for the transition team, MLA Carole James said Premier-Designate John Horgan might not be at the table but his voice is being heard as he’s already discussed fentanyl and softwood with the Prime Minister and is heading to Washington next month.
“The Liberals dragged their feet as you know. We were ready to actually have the confidence vote weeks ago,” said James.
“We could have had the swearing in done, and we could have had it completed ready for these meetings. But, that didn’t happen so we’re moving as fast as we can to the swearing in.”
The NDP-Green agreement set the first session 30 days after that ceremony.
With files from Liza Yuzda, CKNW
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