VANCOUVER — The BC NDP government is putting its plan to temporarily pause key sections of DRIPA on hold, Premier David Eby’s House Leader confirmed Monday — a move that dramatically lowers the chance of a confidence vote and an early election.
NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth said the government is “pumping the brakes” on the amendments. The bill will not be introduced this week. Instead, officials will “go back to the drawing board” and consult further with First Nations. When the legislation returns later this session, Farnworth said, it will not be a confidence vote.
In BC’s parliamentary system, as elsewhere in the country, a confidence vote is a make-or-break moment for any government. Eby had already said the planned bill to pause key parts of DRIPA would be treated as a confidence matter.
That means if the bill was defeated in the legislature, the NDP government would lose the support of the House. With the NDP holding only a razor-thin one-seat majority (47 of 93 seats), even one or two NDP MLAs voting against it, or staying home, could have toppled the government and triggered a snap provincial election months or years ahead of schedule.
Strong pushback from indigenous groups and advocates made that outcome a real possibility, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, co-chair of the First Nations Summit, for one example, publicly stated that his wife, NDP MLA Joan Phillip, is “heartsick” about the proposed pause and does not support it — raising the real possibility that at least one government MLA was prepared to vote against the bill.
Two unelected BC Conservative leadership candidates even weighed-in on the matter over the weekend and on Monday morning, with the Caroline Elliott and Yuri Fulmer campaigns both appearing to advocate for the quickest possible dissolution of the Eby government.
Independents such as Amelia Boultbee and Elenore Sturko also held the power to tip the balance either way, further highlighting how vulnerable the minority-like position of the Eby government really is.
Boultbee noted on Monday morning ahead of Question Period, she and many others in the Legislative Assembly have yet to be provided any details on what Eby’s proposed DRIPA amendments or pause would actually look like.
“I have not yet had the opportunity to review the proposed legislation. No one has,” she said, adding that she has requested a briefing and signed an NDA to see it early.
Sturko, meanwhile, made her position on DRIPA fairly clear on Monday afternoon in spite of there being no confidence vote. She proposed a private member's bill that would repeal Section 8.1 of the Interpretation Act
The bill unanimously through first reading in the legislature for the second time, after being introduced first in 2025. “A pause to DRIPA legislation would freeze our province in uncertainty,” Sturko said. “A repeal, while contentious, provides greater certainty for our province.
She also said on X Monday: “David Eby backed down because he has lost the confidence of his own caucus. Terrible leadership from a terrible premier. British Columbians deserve better.”