British Columbia’s governing NDP and the opposition BC Green party say they are “seeing progress” and “real results” on a series of shared priorities underpinning a cooperation agreement.
The one-seat majority the NDP won in October’s provincial election left the government vulnerable to MLA illness or absence, and would have required the traditionally neutral speaker of the legislature to cast frequent tie-breaking votes.
Instead, the two parties inked a deal that sees the Greens’ two MLAs back the NDP on all confidence votes, in exchange for the government moving on several Green policy priorities and committing to “a relationship of trust based on good faith and no surprises.”
“Half a year in and it is fair to say that we are working well together and holding true to the spirit of our agreement,” Deputy Premier and Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday.
While the precarity of the NDP’s governing majority has eased since the two parties signed the deal, after three former BC Conservatives split with their party, Sharma dismissed questions about whether the NDP still needed the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord (CARGA) with the Greens.
“We see a lot of similaritis, certaintly within the things that are in the CARGA agreement with the Greens, on delivering on health care, on housing, on supporting people in poverty, so this agreement is more than the vote counts in the legislature, and I think what we are showing today is the results of what cooperation can do among parties and working together, which is a way of looking at government differently,” she said.
The Greens, meanwhile, faced questions about whether they remained comfortable partnering with the NDP, after the New Democrats pushed through controversial fast-track legislation this spring, despite Green opposition.
Interim Green Leader Jeremy Valeriote said the two parties were “still keen to work together” despite “some difficult times.”
“We have always wanted to maintain our ability to be an effective opposition party, and we will disagree … Sometimes there is frustration, sometimes we wish we would have had more time to discuss legislation and to find a common solution,” he said.
“But separate from legislative pieces, this is about shared priorities … that part is easy, because we have already agreed we want to get this stuff done. We want to do this for BCers, we don’t want to do it for our partisan ends, we want to do it to help people.”
The two parties agreed to issue quarterly reports on progress on commitments made under key “shared priorities,” including health care, housing, transit, climate and the environment, social justice and electoral reform.
On Tuesday, they released their second quarterly report.
The province is moving on its commitment to review the primary health-care system and pledge to work towards establishing Community Health Centres in all B.C. ridings, with reports on both due later this year, the report states.
On housing, the parties agreed to support the creation of 7,500 units of non-market housing per year, with more than 3,180 completed or underway as of March, according to the report.
The province has also moved on its promise to launch a full review of its CleanBC climate program, which is currently assessing how existing programs are working and looking at the province’s climate targets. The results of the review are due in late fall. The report also points to the creation of a new Provincial Forest Advisory Council, which is slated to report by end of year on policies to support “healthy forests, healthy ecosystems and a healthy forestry sector.”
The report says details on service level and route improvements for transit in the Sea to Sky Corridor are due in the third quarter.
The province has also appointed a Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral reform, which is taking public submissions and hearing from stakeholders, and which will be presenting a report to the legislature by Nov. 26.
“It would be easy to dismiss these as reviews, but they are expert, evidence-based solutions that are going to be brought to us,” Valeriote said.
“Government can be slow-moving. We have been doing our best to hold up our end and return things quickly and keep things moving, but there are a number of these that are tangibly achieved or already on their way, and that will only speed up. As we’ve said, this is going to be an accelerating curve of implementation.”