What to Expect
With Premier Eby having been sworn in last Friday, attention will now turn to who will stay and who will go when he announces his Cabinet in just over two weeks, on December 9. In the meantime, discussions will remain focused on health care access as hospitals contend with a surge of flu and RSV cases.
The Week That Was
Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation Minister Ravi Kahlon announced a new $33 million program to help rural communities diversify their economies and shift away from struggling resource sectors such as forestry. Funding will be drawn from existing sources, including the $185 million allocated in Budget 2022 to provide support for forestry workers, industry, communities, and First Nations affected by restrictions placed on old-growth logging by the 2020 strategic review and other regulations.
Premier Eby introduced a new Safer Communities Action Plan. The new measures respond to a rise in repeat violent offences linked to the unintended impacts of federal law changes, subsequent Supreme Court decisions, and increased mental-health and addiction challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the toxic drug crisis.
The B.C. Liberal Party will now be known as B.C. United; party members ratified the name change last week.
Tsleil-Waututh Nation and the Government of British Columbia. have entered into a government-to-government cannabis agreement that supports cannabis economic development.
The province will be supplying families and small businesseswith a one-time cost-of-living credit on their B.C. Hydro bill this fall as well as a new Affordability Credit in the new year.
