Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary
In early March of this year, MLA Dallas Brodie was expelled from the BC Conservative caucus for telling the simple truth about the fake news that 200 “unmarked graves” of “missing children” had been found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
"The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero. Zero,” she posted on X. She was followed out the door by Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy, two other members of the caucus who could not abide this abuse of power.
Conservative Leader John Rustad tried to obfuscate the expulsion by claiming Brodie had mocked indigenous people in a conversation posted on YouTube. But as part of that conversation, I can tell you that Brodie was not talking about indigenous people when she made the remarks cited by Rustad. The discussion had veered toward philosophy, and she was mocking the fashionable philosophical tendency known as “critical theory.”
Anyway, enough history. Many elected politicians unfairly expelled from their party would just hide out in their office until their term was up.
But not Brodie. Supported by Armstrong and Kealy, she has just introduced a timely private member’s bill, the Tax Relief and Tariff Defence Act. It’s a much-need counterpoint to Premier Eby’s Bill 7, which would leave BC’s high taxes untouched while neutering the legislature and centralizing almost all power in the cabinet.
Brodie’s bill provides comprehensive tax relief for a year, which can be extended for another two years by decision of the cabinet. The personal income tax on taxable income below $100,000 will be reduced by 50%, while the rates on taxable income above $100,000 will be reduced by 25%... (the bill’s wording on these points is not quite clear but can easily be corrected in committee if the bill gets that far.) Moreover, the corporate income tax will be reduced by 25% across the board.
These reductions would restore the tax advantage that BC used to have but that was lost under years of NDP government. They remind me of the 'Alberta Advantage' of low personal and corporate tax rates that Alberta also once enjoyed, but that was frittered away by feckless politicians. These new tax rates will help to reverse the out-migration from BC of professional people and skilled labour. They will also attract new investment into the province, exactly what is needed in a time of economic uncertainty caused by the threat of protective tariffs at the American border.
Going further to invigorate the business climate, the bill also empowers the cabinet “to eliminate procedural obstacles to the development of natural resources, building of public infrastructure, or economic advancement” — in other words, to cut through the thicket of government regulation that stifles business investment in BC, as well as in other provinces. These regulations were mostly made by cabinet pursuant to provincial legislation, so they can be rescinded or modified by cabinet with the authorization of Brodie’s bill.
More adventurously, the bill authorizes the cabinet to “affect or limit” Aboriginal or treaty rights if there are “significant economic, social, and other benefits of timely and affordable development of natural resources, building of public infrastructure, and economic advancement for all Indigenous and non-Indigenous British Columbians.”
This new power may prove to have little effect, for attempts to exercise it are sure to be met by a tsunami of litigation. However, it signals a welcome turn-around from the Eby government’s record of giving indigenous organizations jurisdiction over large tracts of provincial public land.
Most private member’s bills are never approved by the legislature; maybe that will be the fate of Brodie’s bill, as the NDP and Greens together control a majority of votes.
But it would be a huge step forward if the Conservatives would support the bill, perhaps offering amendments to improve it. To keep the NDP government from running wild under Premier Eby’s Bill 7, the free-enterprise forces in BC need to leave past quarrels aside and get their s**t together, not only to oppose the NDP but to offer the voters constructive alternatives.
Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary.