The Conservative MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie has some concerns about similarities between a new infrastructure bill introduced by Premier David Eby and Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma on Thursday, May 1 and the province’s proposed legislation responding to American tariffs on Canadian goods.
However, Prince George Mayor Simon Yu is more optimistic, telling the Citizen that he thought it was a sign the province is looking to be a bigger partner in infrastructure development.
“Like Bill 7, it is really giving cabinet a lot of arbitrary powers and that’s something I am concerned with,” said Kiel Giddens in a Friday, May 2 phone interview.
“Less accountability, limited oversight and really taking the legislative process out of some of the process for infrastructure projects.”
Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, would give the province the power to expedite selected projects through the approvals process, automatically approve some environmental permits deemed to be low risk and let the province assist school districts, health authorities and post-secondary institutions with some procurement.
It would also allow the province to work with local governments — municipalities and regional districts — to either waive or modify certain approval requirements for designated infrastructure projects or bypass local governments entirely if the infrastructure minister deems it important to circumvent delays.
On that last point, Eby said on May 1 that it would be used as a last resort.
Giddens said the legislation, if passed, would allow the provincial cabinet to rewrite zoning bylaws, override regulations and sideline municipal councils without needing to hold a single public meeting.
One of the problems Giddens’ party raised with Bill 7 is that it would allow the cabinet to bypass the legislature in response to actions taken by a foreign jurisdiction. In both cases, Giddens said it was a threat to public transparency.
“That’s a real problem,” Giddens said of Bill 15. “And I think local governments will have a serious concern with this as well.”
He also said it would continue to trend of the NDP picking winners and losers “as opposed to having private sector-led projects that actually make sense.”
Public procurement practices, he said, have been arbitrary under the government, like only using union contractors on projects. He said that has inflated the cost of public projects by limiting bidding, which is bad for both taxpayers and workers.
For both Bill 15 and Bill 14, another piece of legislation aimed at streamlining permitting for renewable energy products, Giddens said while he supports energy projects led by sound economics, he doesn’t want to see them driven by government politics.
“I worry about an over-reliance on wind projects just because it’s the politically expedient thing to do, not because it makes the most sense for the power generation capacity that we actually need for power in this province,” Giddens said.
Under Bill 15, the province would have the power to designate some projects as being of provincial significance so they can be expedited, including public infrastructure, critical mineral supply, food or water security, human health and safety, trade diversification, access to markets, post-disaster recovery and others.
However, Eby told reporters on May 1 that the energy projects would have to be renewables, not oil- and gas-related.
“I think we absolutely need oil and gas projects now,” Giddens said. “Especially at a time when our economic sovereignty is on the line. We rely on pipelines and oil and gas infrastructure. The risk to the Tidewater Renewables refinery nearly closing shows how fragile our energy sovereignty really is.”
Currently, Giddens said, the Legislature is reviewing budget estimates and in looking at the creation of the Ministry of Infrastructure, he feels it’s getting harder to figure out where money in the government is going as infrastructure projects keep coming in over budget.
Because of that, he said he’s worried about Bill 15 giving cabinet more authority in these matters.
Also reached by phone on May 2, Mayor Yu said he’d taken a first glance at the bill and spoken to Giddens about it briefly during a discussion at the Minerals North conference at the Civic Centre.
“I was really glad this bill came forward,” Yu said. “I think government realized Bill 44 ain’t going to work unless infrastructure — the water, sewer the roads and all the infrastructure to support these housing densities — is there.”
Bill 44 was the legislation passed by the provincial government in their last term promoting the construction of small-scale, multi-unit housing.
He said Prince George is already “very speedy” regarding infrastructure construction for housing and industrial land development and he isn’t worried that the province would need to intervene locally.
As a director for the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, Yu said he feels similarly about the situation at that level as well.
With Prince George being the size of two Victorias, two Nanaimos and Saanich put together, Yu said what the city really needs is for the provincial and federal government to recognize that they need to provide more financial support.
Especially so, he said, because new Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he wants to promote housing construction at the federal level as well.
“And so, I see this legislation for us as a positive thing,” he said.
Giddens also said he’s participated in around 26 hours of committee-stage debates surrounding Bill 7 to this point.
There are two parts regarding the bill’s attempts to reduce interprovincial trade that he said he’s concerned with.
The first is that the interprovincial trade provisions has a sunset clause and he said it should be permanent. The second is that is excludes labour mobility, which he said concerns him as the opposition labour critic.
“Labour mobility is in regards to credentials,” Giddens said. “It’s about the recognition of workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety regulations for jurisdictions because those are barrier to labour moving between provinces.”
Other provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia have included labour mobility as part of their efforts to reduce internal trade barrier, he said.
He said BC not doing the same is because of political reasons.
“The Conservative opposition has remained fully opposed to Bill 7 and we’ve been fighting tooth and nail,” Giddens said. “We do support interprovincial trade and labour mobility, so we will stay on that because that’s the consequential part of what we need to do to strengthen our economy in Canada.”
Earlier in the week, a delegation from Prince George’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs visited Victoria, which included watching question period in the Legislature from the visitors’ gallery.
Giddens said all three Prince George MLAs met with the delegation, praising their work in trying to advance files like affordable housing.
“Housing laws and taxes that were meant for the Lower Mainland, they don’t really work in Prince George, so they’re trying to make sure that’s known,” he said. “They have also done a really good job advocating on the psychiatric care health centre.”
On that last point, Giddens said he was in lockstep with the city and looked forward to Eby fulfilling his promise from question period that the province would soon have news on that front to share.
The Citizen was unable to reach Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird for comment.
