IN THE LEDGE – Premier continues to deflect to the Wayback Machine

Excerpt from Question Period in the B.C. Legislature Oct. 6, 2025 during debate on government spending.

Hon. David Eby: When we hire staff, we hire them for their qualifications. I assure you that you will never find anyone hired by me that is an active residential schools denier that promotes racism and hate. What you will find is us hiring people who are qualified, skilled and bring an ability to do the job and get the job done for British Columbians.

The Speaker: Member for Kamloops Centre.

Interjection.

The Speaker: Member, after the question period, please. After the question period.

Peter Milobar: Well, it sounds like the Premier is admitting that he hired 850 managers under his watch that he’s now gotten rid of with his FTE reduction plan that he just talked about.

This is the problem. Today the Premier decides to continue to deflect, as he always does, back in the Wayback Machine, back to regimes and previous governments, but he doesn’t want to look at the two-year track record of his own premiership, a two-year track record where he arrived with a $6 billion surplus, which is now a record deficit — in fact, a deficit that’s going to continue to climb.

He was warned about the growing public service administration for years, and they ignored it. Now he wants a pat on the back because they’re trying to adjust. And if they can get rid of 850 people without impacting public services, why did they hire them in the first place? What were they doing for the last several years?

It’s quite simple. The debt has doubled under this Premier. The debt-servicing cost has doubled under this Premier. No wonder they have no fiscal room to actually get a settlement. They’re paying an extra $2½ billion in interest payments alone this year than when this Premier took office as the Premier.

But he doesn’t want to talk about his own track record. He wants to talk about 20 years ago. That’s relevant to the 10,000 people that were on the debt-servicing cost has doubled under this Premier. No wonder they have no fiscal room to actually get a settlement. They are paying an extra $2½ billion in interest payments alone this year than when this Premier took office as the Premier. But he does not want to talk about his own track record. He wants to talk about 20 years ago, because that is relevant to the 10,000 people that were on the front lawn today.

So it is really quite simple. The Premier keeps saying that they’re going to bend the curve. Unfortunately, they’re bending it upwards and skyrocketing upwards with deficit and debt, and those costs are ever hampering this government.

When will we see a proper fiscal plan that actually gets the province back on the right track and actually sees some control of spending with this government instead of everything going to his political friends and insiders?

Hon. Brenda Bailey: Thank you to the member opposite for the question.

Like the rest of Canada, B.C. is facing significant fiscal headwinds, but we’re taking action. We already have reviewed government expenses and brought down $1.5 billion from the fiscal plan. But that is not enough. Every ministry is doing the heavy lifting of reviewing every dollar that we spend here in British Columbia.

And yes, we have taken action to freeze public service. In fact, we’ve brought down 850 jobs. This is action we must take in the context of the economic circumstances we find ourselves in, Canada finds itself in and, around the world, is the experience.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh. Members.

Hon. Brenda Bailey: But B.C. still remains competitive to the rest of Canada. We have lower GDP-debt ratios than almost the rest of Canada. We have a plan to bend the curve. We know, on the other side, when they were running during the election, they planned to spend $2 billion more.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members. Shhh. Members.

Source: BC Hansard