Renee Merrifield has denounced Bill 7 as “probably one of the most far-reaching bills … that I have ever seen in my life.”
The controversial legislation, which Premier David Eby proposed last week, would grant the BC government the power to make certain changes in the province without requiring the approval of the Legislative Assembly.
Eby said the law was required so his government can be “nimble” in the face of the “human-caused disaster” emanating from the US under President Donald Trump. He said it would be used for the likes of clearing away interprovincial trade barriers and putting tolls on US vehicles passing through BC en route to Alaska.
But Merrifield – who joins many other critics of the bill across the political spectrum – reckons its true significance has “slid under the wire.”
“This is the most bizarre bill I've ever seen, and I think we need to sound the alarm bell,” she told Jim Csek in her weekly Beyond the Ballot show.
“We need to get loud: write your MLAs, talk to your friends, get on social media. We need to draw attention to Bill 7 being insanely detrimental to our future here in BC.”
She added: “It allows Eby and the cabinet to make any decision they want, to enact any legislation or regulation that they see fit, and they do not have to go to the Legislative Assembly for ratification. They can do it unilaterally with a cabinet decision.”
NDP backbench MLAs, she said, “are out of the conversation.”
Eby said last week, however, that given his thin majority in the legislature, it would take only a relatively small number of displeased NDP representatives to join forces with the BC Conservatives to force a confidence vote.
But that doesn’t placate Merrifield, who said the bill is so powerful that it removes the executive from any “checks and balances.”
“This is the most sweeping piece of legislation that I have ever seen, giving full power and autonomy to a premier and cabinet,” she said.
The BC economy, she added, is “in dire straits,” but that’s not Trump’s doing.
“Eby's government got us here,” she said. “And so for him to now say that he needs ultimate power and authority to be able to react to these economic times I think is so disingenuous and really scapegoating Trump. Now, dear God, there is so much that I could say about Trump ... but this is not the answer.
“This is actually basically becoming what you are accusing Trump of being, which is authoritarian and neglecting your elected citizens.”
During her conversation with Csek, she also discussed:
The fact the federal carbon tax “still exists” because Parliament has not been recalled for the legislation to be changed or repealed
The possibility that BC could be stuck with its own carbon tax after the rest of Canada is freed from the federal levy
BC’s reliance on US energy
How cruise ships ditching BC could cause “massive” damage
The “contempt” with which Mark Carney addressed reporters who asked him about his potential conflicts of interest
That it wasn’t “a good look” for Carney to fly to France and the UK for his first visits
Carney’s “disingenuous” claim that a carbon tax is necessary to trade with countries around the world
That Jagmeet Singh “needs to be gone” amid the NDP’s sinking popularity in polls
