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As backlash grows to the B.C. NDP’s tariff response bill, Premier David Eby and Attorney General Niki Sharma are holding a news conference in Vancouver this morning to talk about the planned legislation.
It’s being billed as an “update” on their plans, but it follows negotiations this week between Sharma and the two B.C. Green MLAs over changes to Bill 7, which introduced the Economic Stabilization Tariff Response Act on March 13.
The act would give the NDP government sweeping powers to respond to the ongoing trade war with the U.S., including breaking down interprovincial trade barriers and giving B.C. the ability to toll trucks that drive through the province to Alaska.
Critics including the B.C. Conservatives, some business groups and former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell say it effectively gives cabinet the power to bypass the legislature for any measures related to tariffs or supporting the economy.
Campbell told CBC News he doesn’t buy Eby’s argument that the emergency powers are needed so B.C. can respond more swiftly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“It is completely false to suggest that the legislature cannot move quickly. It can move quickly,” said Campbell, who was premier from 2001 to 2011.
“It is the move of an autocrat, not someone who claims to be a New Democrat,” he said of Eby. “It’s a move that says the legislature will effectively be suspended for two years while whatever the premier decides to do gets done. That is not how a democracy works.”
Marc Lee, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, talks about the Economic Stabilization Tariff Response Act, which, if passed, would allow the government to respond without having to go through the legislature for debate. B.C. Premier David Eby has said the response is necessary to protect jobs and businesses amid tariff threats. However, opposition parties are not convinced.
Campbell said it’s ironic that in order to respond to Trump’s tariff threats, Eby has taken a page out of the U.S. president’s political playbook.
“We have to recognize that this is a very manipulative bill, suggesting that it’s the only way we can act if he has the sole right to decide. People didn’t elect a dictator,” Campbell said.
B.C. Green MLAs Jeremey Valeriote and Rob Botterell have not yet specified what changes to the bill they were asking for when they met with Sharma earlier this week.
Valeriote said in a statement that he understands the “urgency of the situation” given the ongoing trade battle with the U.S., but the proposed bill has “vague wording” and “could allow for sweeping economic decisions without clear limits or transparency.”
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce have also opposed the broad scope of the bill, after initially expressing support.
The board of trade wrote in a letter that while it supports the measures to break down interprovincial trade barriers, “other parts of Bill 7 are truly unprecedented in scope, including the sweeping powers that would be conferred to the cabinet. While it is clear Trump’s trade war has spurred an economic emergency, it is not clear to us that the sweeping powers are required or justified.”
In a letter to Eby and Sharma, B.C. Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Famulak said Bill 7 “goes too far and that the controversial nature of the legislation will delay timely progress on the substantive and important issue of dismantling interprovincial trade barriers.
“The bill, despite its title, risks creating uncertainty for businesses and British Columbians and undermining B.C.’s ability to stabilize and grow the economy, attract investment and create jobs, all of which fund the public services we rely on,” she added.
The bill is set to be debated after the legislature resumes on March 31.
