Christy Clark is to be congratulated on her win, said Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson, but he’s not optimistic that the Northwest will benefit under her leadership.
As of Monday, Clark would have been sworn in as the new premier and named her new cabinet.
Donaldson entirely respects the commitment that Clark’s new role will take from her.
That said, looking at her history in government, notably her involvement from 2001 to 2005 when she was Minister of Education and deputy Premier, Donaldson thinks there is cause for concern for the Northwest.
“Under her leadership as Minister of Education, the new funding formula was put in place and lo and behold here we are a number of years later seeing the result of that, of schools closing in our school district,” he said.
There were other bad decisions made while she was deputy leader, including the sale of B.C. Rail, he said.
“When you look ahead to what a person might be doing, you look at what they’ve done in the past.”
He also casts a suspicious eye to her transition team, which he said includes a former vice president in the Enbridge company, and former CEO of Encana. He was referring to Roger Harris and Gwyn Morgan.
“We know that by that happening that Enbridge and the oil and gas industry will have the ear of her government right off the bat and so that’s cause for concern in the Northwest here definitely.”
Meanwhile, ahead of Monday’s swearing in, Clark was promising a smaller cabinet than the last one appointed by Gordon Campbell
She renewed her campaign pledge to restore $15 million in gambling grants cut from charities last year, and to launch a review of the B.C. government’s relationship with charities.
Faced with a recession and budget deficits, former housing and social development minister Rich Coleman restricted arts and sports grants to those that benefit young people and the disabled. B.C. government revenues from lotteries and casinos have grown to $1 billion a year, with a large new destination casino being considered for downtown Vancouver.
“My position on it has always been that if we’re going to expand gambling in British Columbia, we need to make sure that there is money going back to communities and charities,” Clark said. “I think that was the crucial tradeoff that citizens bought into, and so we need to make sure that if we’re expanding gambling, that we keep that deal with the citizens of the province.”
A commission will be appointed to examine the government’s relationship with charities, and to recommend ways that they can be assured of stable funding.
Clark said her first priority is to make sure the government considers families in all of its decisions. Asked how that fits in with increasing medical services plan premiums and BC Hydro rates that are expected to rise 50 per cent in the next few years, she said government has to look beyond tax rates to the full costs imposed on families by the province.
With files from Tom Fletcher