Findlay fills shadow cabinet gaps left by Milobar and Paton exits

PENTICTON — Conservative Party of BC Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay has reshuffled her shadow cabinet to cover the vacancies created by the departures of Peter Milobar and Ian Paton, moving Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew into the finance critic role and assigning Abbotsford South MLA Bruce Banman the agriculture file..In an email to members, Findlay also named Reann Gasper as deputy chief of staff, Misty Van Popta as deputy whip, and expanded Scott McInnes’s portfolio so the indigenous relations critic will also lead caucus policy development. “We now have a stronger team than before,” Findlay said, “ready and willing to take on and defeat the NDP.”Milobar, the Kamloops Centre MLA and former finance critic, left the caucus on August 14 to sit as an independent. He said his values no longer aligned with the party’s direction under Findlay. On Monday, Delta South MLA and agriculture critic Ian Paton followed, using nearly identical language about a lack of alignment with the new direction. The pair appeared together outside the legislature and said they intend to form a new party, with Milobar as interim leader, and seek official party status before the fall session..Dew, a first-term MLA with a business background that includes an Oxford MBA and prior work on large-scale agricultural innovation projects, had been serving as economic development critic. Banman, a former Abbotsford mayor and chiropractor who crossed the floor to the Conservatives in 2023, retains tourism while picking up agriculture. Gasper’s appointment as deputy chief of staff comes days after she announced her resignation as Abbotsford-Mission MLA to open a seat for Findlay to contest in a by-election..The moves come less than three months after Findlay’s May 30 leadership victory and her initial late-June shadow cabinet and caucus leadership announcements. Those earlier changes retained Milobar as finance critic and Paton as agriculture critic even as Findlay elevated a number of her leadership-race supporters into key internal roles. Both departing MLAs had previously sat with the BC Liberals, who in turn became BC United, before eventually joining the Conservatives.Findlay’s team now faces the practical task of holding the NDP government to account on public finances and the agriculture sector with a reduced caucus. Dew steps into the high-profile finance file at a time when the province continues to wrestle with rising taxpayer-supported debt and repeated Auditor General qualifications on deferred revenue accounting. Banman takes on agriculture while the sector deals with ongoing pressures around land use, water, and trade..The two departures are the latest visible signs of internal friction since Findlay took the leadership. Party and caucus staff changes have been extensive, and several moderate or former United voices have either left or been marginalized. Milobar and Paton have framed their new effort as an option for voters who reject the NDP but do not see a path under the current Conservative direction. Whether additional MLAs follow remains an open question. Milobar has said some caucus members are still weighing their options.

Findlay fills shadow cabinet gaps left by Milobar and Paton exits

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