WEEK IN BC POLITICS: Police chiefs exit without reasons, BC government directory disappears, as premier's vanishing act continues

PENTICTON — British Columbia's government is operating this week behind a wall of silence. Top police officers have been removed with no public explanation. Political staffers and executives have collected exorbitant performance bonuses with no listed measurable targets. The public employee directory taxpayers used for decades to contact anyone in government has been taken offline, and the premier himself has not been seen in person since he posed for cameras here more than nine days ago.The pattern is consistent: decisions are announced, details are withheld, and the tools ordinary people typically use to ask follow-up questions have been removed.On August 13, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme announced that Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, the commanding officer for the force in British Columbia, had been relieved of his duties.Two months earlier, on June 2, the Surrey Police Board announced that Chief Constable Norm Lipinski had left the service. The board gave no reason. Lipinski later told his members he had been terminated without cause. Board chair Harley Chappell resigned in protest the same day, writing that "political tentacles" had reached too far into the oversight body and that the vote had been taken at a meeting he could not attend.Lipinski had been hired to lead Surrey's long, politically charged transition from the RCMP to a municipal force. McDonald had been the public face of the Mounties on high-profile files including the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. Neither departure came with a public account of what, if anything, they had done wrong.The newer allegations date to 2016-2018, when McDonald ran the Surrey detachment. Duheme said investigations are ongoing and that, once again, the force would provide no further details..Eby told reporters the public deserves to know why. Then the premier himself vanished from public view.And that's when the entire public directory went dark. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Citizens' Services restricted public access to the BC Government Directory. The site, available in some form since the 1930s, listed names, titles, emails and phone numbers so anyone could find the person responsible for a file and contact them. The government cited cybersecurity threats and employee privacy, saying it acted on RCMP advice.The abrupt change came just as the government disclosed that senior executives, excluded managers, and NDP political staffers had received 2 to 2.5% "performance-based" raises. The increases were authorized in February and made retroactive to July 1, 2025. They cost $23 million.Deputy minister to the premier Shannon Salter received more than $434,000 in total compensation last year. The new maximum for that role is $415,900 plus a car allowance of up to $14,400. The disclosure does not list a single specific target that was met..Eby's last documented in-person appearance was August 12 in this city, standing with Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene as the Bald Range wildfire forced thousands from their homes..Since then, he has only issued written statements and social-media posts but has not held another briefing — even as first ministers were briefed on U.S. trade talks the premier has previously treated as an existential threat to the province and country.Eby had treated those tariffs as a direct attack on BC forestry families and vowed there was "not a chance in hell" that American alcohol would return to liquor-store shelves. .When Prime Minister Mark Carney asked premiers this week to restock U.S. liquor as a condition of any deal, Eby issued only a written statement backing "Team Canada" that did not mention alcohol..For better or worse (mostly worse), this is the current operating model: police leadership changes without reasons, bonuses without metrics, a directory without names, and a premier without a public location. British Columbians who want answers now have fewer places to look and fewer people they are allowed to ask.

WEEK IN BC POLITICS: Police chiefs exit without reasons, BC government directory disappears, as premier's vanishing act continues

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