Greens End Deal to Back NDP, Citing Policy Failures

The BC Green Party is ending its formal support for the NDP in the legislature, citing the government’s failure to make enough progress on key issues.

“It’s become clear that the BC NDP is ceding their values to corporate interests,” Green Leader Emily Lowan said in a statement Monday morning. “This government isn’t willing to support workers — they haven’t fought for unions or stood up to the one per cent — we will.”

Lowan, who does not have a seat in the legislature, became leader in September following Sonia Furstenau’s resignation. Six months earlier, the party’s two MLAs had signed a Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord with the NDP, an agreement Lowan criticized during the leadership campaign.

The accord “reflects a shared commitment to working collaboratively on issues that matter to people” and guaranteed Green support on confidence votes in the legislature in exchange for progress on issues such as health care, climate change and affordable housing.

With 47 of the legislature’s 93 seats, the NDP has the smallest possible majority. The agreement with the Greens gave it a buffer to help pass legislation, win votes and continue governing.

The Green caucus — Saanich North and the Islands MLA Rob Botterell and West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jeremy Valeriote — released their own statement timed with Lowan’s.

“The BC Greens entered the CARGA agreement in good faith because British Columbians needed stability and results,” it quoted Botterell. “But when the BC NDP failed to deliver on clear 2025 commitments — commitments they agreed to complete — it raised serious questions about their ability to execute, and it broke the trust that agreement depended on.”

Valeriote accused the government of becoming increasingly centralized, less collaborative and less willing to work with partners.

“We’ve seen it in legislation, in labour disputes, in failed consultations and reports not acted upon,” he said. “In the legislature, this BC NDP has been closed to amendments and compromise. Effective governments work well with others — they don’t sideline them.”

The two Green releases came out just 15 minutes after Eby told reporters that the government was working towards renewing the agreement.

“We are engaging with the Greens,” he said. “We’re trying to find a path with them. Where we can find cooperation we will do that and I don’t have any update other than to say we are still engaged with the Greens in conversations.”

Eby said a spring election in the province is unlikely. “We have the votes that we need, including our members who have been struggling with various medical diagnoses and treatments. They will be attending and voting.”

Following the Greens’ announcement that the deal is off, Deputy Premier Niki Sharma released a statement thanking the two Green MLAs for their collaboration.

“Our priority with the Green Party has been to find shared priorities we could cooperate on, that would also ensure additional stability for British Columbians,” she said. “However, as the Greens won’t rule out voting with the Conservatives on confidence measures to trigger an election, we were unable to find common ground.”

Sharma said British Columbians want action on issues that matter to them, not an election, and that the government will continue to work with the Greens on an issue-by-issue and vote-by-vote basis.

The Green rejection of the agreement is an abrupt departure from the last quarterly update on the accord. Released at the end of October, a statement from the time quoted Botterell saying, “This quarter highlights meaningful progress on issues that matter to British Columbians.”

Valeriote called the accord “a model for how collaboration can strengthen governance.”

“We’re proud of the progress made so far and even prouder that people across British Columbia are seeing real, tangible support in their communities.”

In contrast, Monday’s release from the caucus instead cited insufficient progress on regional transit in the Sea-to-Sky region, failure to expand public coverage of appointments with psychologists, failure to support Community Health Centres and failure to review social assistance and disability rates.

“Our agreement with the BC NDP is now over, but our agreement with the people of British Columbia is as strong as ever,” Valeriote said. “We’ll keep fighting for affordability, climate action, Indigenous rights and a responsible government that works for all British Columbians.”

Lowan’s statement cited rising levels of wealth inequality, poor treatment of labour unions and the need to better support working families through the cost-of-living crisis.

“The BC Greens and British Columbians are not interested in more flip-flopping and political cowardice from Eby,” she said. “The only way to take back our economy for working families and deliver affordability is by challenging corporate power: the BC NDP won’t — we will.”