BC Conservatives lay out goals for first 100 days in office

BC Conservative Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson has started sketching out a series of goals for his first 100 days in office, and the scale of challenges facing the new government is starting to come into focus.

Among the first orders of business is to secure his own leadership on paper, as Doerkson is still technically the interim leader of the party.

“I’m leader and that’s an administrative detail and there will be more information on that imminently,” Doerkson said on Sunday.

He also needs to choose a cabinet, with health and finance being the biggest portfolios, and determine when the legislature will resume.

“I don’t want to rule out a fall session,” Doerkson said.

“I think it’s important to keep that option available and open to us. Of course, we have much to do before we can get there to make that decision.”

Doerkson also announced on Sunday that his government will launch an independent review of the province’s finances.

David Eby inherited a $6 billion surplus from John Horgan, but the current deficit is projected at $14 billion.

“We need to see a credible path back to a balanced budget,” Bridgitte Anderson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade said.

“And so that is going to take time, but we’re really hoping to further understand from the Conservative government what that timeline looks like.”

Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, said that Doerkson does have some challenges ahead of him, including addressing B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

“Through the leadership campaign last year, they all wanted to repeal DRIPA, all the candidates,” he said.

“That was an article of faith during the campaign, and he reiterated that on Saturday night. And we know that First Nations in this province are totally opposed to that, and so there’s going to be a confrontation ahead of us if they do indeed go forward with it.”

On Monday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said, “We’re not going to stand idly by while the government-elect does, in fact, rip it up.

“That’s a declaration of war.”

The road ahead for the BC NDP is also unknown.

They have to find an interim leader, but it is not clear when, or who, that will be.

“These are very early days and the NDP does not have to be in a rush,” Telford said.

“They’ve got some veterans there to sort of guide them through this, but certainly there are people like Niki Sharma and Bowinn Ma that are going to be in the caucus who I think would be early frontrunners.

“Ravi Kahlon did not contest this election, but he’s long been thought to be interested in leadership. And there may be others out there who were not elected this time around or have not been at the provincial level, coming out of the municipal level. So the NDP really should give itself time. They’ve got four years here to choose the right person.”