David Eby on Progress Made, and Work Still Ahead

British Columbia Premier David Eby is managing expectations about how much his government can achieve before the October election.

The province faces significant challenges, Eby acknowledged in a year-end interview with The Tyee, listing the housing crisis, the rising cost of living and the strained health-care system.

Most British Columbians understand there’s no quick fix to these and other issues, he said. “My goal is to have very clear markers that they can see and experience in their communities to show them where we’re going and to give them the confidence that we’re headed in the right direction.”

It’s a response that addresses one of the main messages from BC United Leader Kevin Falcon, who argues voters should hold the government accountable for results instead of being distracted by the blizzard of announcements and statements of good intentions.

As Falcon put it to The Tyee recently, “I’m very, very concerned about the direction this government’s taken us and the fact that we’re not getting good results in virtually everything they’re responsible for.”

Eby said people are right to be skeptical of politicians talking and he agrees with the basic point that results matter. “The core of the critique about wanting to see that change is one that I share. I don’t want to be at the next election saying, ‘Look at all the announcements we’ve made.’ It’s important that people actually see change, improvement, hope on the ground in their communities, so that’s really the focus.”

People will see an example soon with the BC Builds program that Eby said the province intends to roll out starting in January using public land to build housing. “I want shovels in the ground in communities so people can actually see those developments taking shape, attainable middle-income housing in their communities, leveraging the power of government, the resources of government, to deliver the housing that people deserve.”

When Eby became leader of the BC NDP, he promised that in his first 100 days as premier he would “launch initiatives” to create housing but also to address challenges with health care, public safety and the environment.

So what would he point to as an example of the action the government has taken on each priority?

On health care, he said, the agreements the government has reached with nurses and family physicians are significant. “These are agreements for both groups of health professionals that connect the incentives for both government and these health professionals with the patient experience in the hospital or in terms of having a family doctor.”

For doctors, there is a new payment model that increases pay, recognizes after-hour service, covers more overhead and moves from paying a flat fee-for-service to including payments for the number of hours worked and the number of patients on a physician’s caseload.

“Instead of paying family doctors the best to do drop-in clinics and have short-term relationships with patients,” Eby said, the province is “paying them to have long-term family doctor relationships with patients.” Thanks to the change, more than 100,000 British Columbians who didn’t previously have access to a family doctor are now attached to one, he said.

For nurses, there’s an agreement to limit the number of patients they are expected to care for during a shift. When the number is exceeded, Eby said, the government takes the money “saved” by not having more nurses working and spends it to improve the quality of life for nurses.

“Those agreements, they sound technical, but they’re going to make a significant difference in the morale of health-care workers... but also in the patient experience,” he said.

On public safety, Eby said, the success B.C. and other provinces had pressing the federal government on bail reform is the biggest change, even if it took way longer than it should have.

“The other piece that’s significant and important is recognizing the close link between addictions and mental health and public safety,” he said, pointing to the expansion of programs that pair mental health workers with police officers.

On the environment, Eby said, “I think the one that I’m really excited about in terms of the potential of transformation of the province is the agreement we struck around conservation financing with First Nations and the federal government.”

About 15 per cent of B.C. is in protected areas, and the province has promised to increase that to 30 per cent by 2030. Following a model used in the Great Bear Rainforest, there is $1 billion that can be used as those wild spaces are identified and protected to create other opportunities for work.

“It’s environmental protection, but it’s also economic policy and it’s also reconciliation,” Eby said. “It checks a lot of boxes for British Columbians that they’re concerned about and interested in and it demonstrates, I think, that prosperity for the province doesn’t have to be this binary choice that people always try to force us into.”

The government is close to reaching formal agreements with some First Nations that have identified areas they want to protect, said Eby. “The conservation financing allows us to get to those agreements. It was a necessary step to get to those actual sites.”

Soon it will all become much less abstract, he said. “They’re not ‘parks’ in the traditional sense because of the history of parks and somebody drawing a circle on a map overtop of a bunch of nations and how they traditionally used the land, so it’s a different kind of approach and it’s one where we’ll be world leaders.”

Housing was a particular focus during the fall session of the legislature, with the government passing several bills aimed at increasing supply and making homes more affordable.

“I think the piece that’s brought me the greatest individual satisfaction in terms of having direct impact is the short-term rental legislation,” Eby said. “The reason why I like it so much is because even though it hasn’t come into full force yet — it doesn’t come into force until May — we’re already seeing impact, we’re seeing people be able to move into places that used to be run as hotels.”

It improves the quality of life for someone who can move into a home that wasn’t previously available, and it’s better for the neighbours as well, he said. “It’s a very tangible experience of how a law can make a real difference on the ground for people.”

The politics of the policy were good as well, Eby pointed out. “It’s also a very helpful bright line when people think, ‘Oh, all the parties are equally interested in housing,’” he said. “Here’s one where the opposition voted against us in support of people investing in property to run it as short-term rental. It’s a very clear point of difference, along with a number of other housing initiatives that they also voted against.”

The legislature’s two BC Green Party MLAs voted with the government on the bill’s final reading, but BC United and Conservative Party of BC MLAs did not.

The new law won’t fix everything, Eby allowed, but it is an example of something people will see doing what it’s supposed to do in their neighbourhoods.

“The housing crisis is not solved, but for that person who looks across the street at what used to be an Airbnb and sees a young family living there now, they know that we’re headed in the right direction on this stuff,” he said.

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