Vaughn Palmer: Horgan aims to get handle on ICBC, downplays rumours of snap election
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 01:58:11 +0000
VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan says the NDP government’s goal for 2020 is to “build on the successes we’ve had and to reboot and retool in areas where we’re not meeting the same level of success.”
Horgan puts the troubled Insurance Corp. of B.C. at the top of the to-do list, calling it “priority 1-A” for the year ahead.
“People don’t have confidence in the company,” the premier admitted in a year-end interview with The Vancouver Sun. “We have got to get a handle on ICBC rates for people, we’ve got to bring rates down.”
The premier made the comment in the same week as the cabinet minister in charge of ICBC, David Eby, had to intervene to put off the latest rate increase application to the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Despite the setbacks in Eby’s effort to rein in auto insurance rates — capped by a $400 million reversal in court earlier this year — Horgan insists the battle can be won short of the drastic privatization urged by the Oppositon B.C. Liberals.
“We need to find a way to rebalance ICBC, so that our public insurance company can provide the same services that we’re getting in other places at a rate that’s affordable for people,” he told Rob Shaw and me last week.
Horgan also indicated more government relief is coming for the forest sector, particularly in the NDP’s political base of Vancouver Island.
He was guarded about specifics, because of the long-running strike at Western Forest Products, where last ditch talks are proceeding under mediator Vince Ready.
“We would love to see more progress on mental health,” said Horgan, mentioning a third priority. “On the addictions issue, we have seen a decline in deaths, which are still outrageously high. But there’s a continued rise in overdoses so we’re finding ways to keep people alive, but we’re not finding ways to (wean) them off.”
The premier hinted at another priority for retooling his government, in a year-end interview with Global TV.
“We’re at the halfway point,” Horgan told reporter Keith Baldrey. “Some members are not going to be running again, so I am going to have those conversations over the Christmas break, and we will see. There will probably be some changes in the new year.”
When Baldrey wondered if a new cabinet lineup would be in place when the legislature sits in February, Horgan seemed to be toying with the possibility.
“I would like to do it…,” he began, then caught himself. “Well I don’t know. We will have to see what the new year brings.”
The premier’s indication that he will be talking to ministers over the Christmas break about whether they will be running for re-election raises an intriguing possibility.
Premiers will do that near the end of their term of government with a view to moving the retirees to the backbench and bring fresh faces to the cabinet table.
But the scheduled date for the next election — Oct. 16, 2021 — is still almost two years away. Or is it?
Horgan was asked variations on that question in most year-end interviews, prompted by the pending change of leadership in the NDP’s partner in power sharing, the Green party.
The partnership agreement was signed by the three sitting Green MLAs and it runs to the fixed election date in 2021. But a new leader from outside the legislature would not necessarily feel bound by the terms.
“What will a new leader do? I have no idea,” Horgan acknowledged in an interview with Justine Hunter of the Globe and Mail.
“I’ll just take it as it comes. Whoever emerges as the leader of the Greens, we will sit down and see where we go. But we always have to be ready for an election.”
In the interview with The Vancouver Sun, Horgan also said that whenever the election does roll around, the New Democrats will be seeking to eliminate the Greens and win a majority on their own.
“That’s right, because you can’t fabricate — you can’t construct a minority until after the votes are cast,” he told reporter Shaw. “The NDP historically has been a coalition of interests that come together before an election, so that they can fight to win an election and majorities, and so nothing’s changed in that regard.”
Being prepared for an early election is one thing. All three parties in the legislature will be working on that in the new year. But that doesn’t mean one is in the works.
Horgan gave a flat “no” when asked by Global TV if he were planning to call an early election on his own initiative.
“No one wants an election except the hyper-partisans,” the premier told Mike Smyth of the Province newspaper. “Regular people are happy. The books are balanced. Services are being delivered. So why would I disrupt that?”
Thanks to the fixed-in-law election date, Horgan would also need a persuasive reason for going to an election in the third year of the NDP term.
Losing a confidence vote in the house would be compelling. But simply thinking he would catch the Opposition with its pants down could easily backfire.
The province’s first NDP premier, Dave Barrett, thought he saw an opening when he called a snap election not long after the three-year mark of his term.
He miscalculated. The New Democrats were defeated and driven from power for the next 16 years.
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