Premier promises to revise controversial legislation allowing him to bypass legislature

Premier David Eby is going ahead with legislation he says BC needs to stand up to US President Donald Trump.

On Friday morning during a press conference, Eby defended legislation which would allow the premier and his cabinet to bypass the legislature when “addressing challenges, or anticipated challenges, to British Columbia arising from the actions of a foreign jurisdiction,” but said it will be adjusted after “stakeholder” feedback.

“We’re going to take this bill back and make sure that we have provisions in place that people feel and understand that there’ll be oversight of these provisions, while ensuring at the same time that we’re able to act quickly to respond to an economic attack from the president that I entirely expect, because it’s what he’s been doing since he was elected,” Eby said.

The Bill has been criticized by the BC Chamber of Commerce, and by former premiers Ujjal Dosanjh and Gordon Campbell, who called it “autocratic.” However, Eby says he’s going ahead, minus the section which defines how powers can be applied.

Eby deflected criticism that the bill was a power grab, justifying it by arguing BC needs to be able to respond quickly to political and economic threats.

“We have emergency response authorities for natural disasters; we do not have emergency response authorities for disasters created by the president of the United States.”

He aims to pass it this spring in a form which will allow BC to put tolls on Alaska-bound traffic, streamline interprovincial trade, and speed up government purchasing.

The controversial section, section 4 of the bill, will be revised and brought back in fall for review.

You can read the bill for yourself here; it’s called the Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act.