Category Archives: #CdnPoli | Canadian Politics

#VanPoli | Our Collective Journey Towards Indigenous Reconciliation

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Canada, canadian politics, News, Politics, Vancouver, , , ,

In contemporary discourse, acknowledgment of reconciliation at the commencement of gatherings of people — when such gatherings take place in Parliament, the Legislature, or at meetings of municipal Councils, or more informally at other types of political meetings, in churches, at housing co-operative meetings, or even when people gather to take in a screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival’s VIFF Centre — has gained considerable attention and importance.

The land acknowledgment serves as a recognition of past injustices and a commitment to moving forward with mutual respect and understanding.

Today on VanRamblings, we’ll explore the significance of the reconciliation acknowledgment in fostering inclusivity, building relationships, and promoting healing within organizations and communities.

One significant catalyst for the reconciliation acknowledgment was the global recognition of the need to address the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization on Indigenous peoples. This recognition was spurred by advocacy efforts from Indigenous communities, grassroots organizations, and allies pushing for truth, justice, and reconciliation.

In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 2008, played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the legacy of residential schools and advocating for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. As part of its Calls to Action, the TRC called on governments, organizations, and individuals to recognize and respect Indigenous rights, cultures, and traditions, through the acknowledgment of traditional territories and treaties.

By acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and recognizing the histories of colonization and marginalization, a space is created where all participants feel valued and respected. This acknowledgment extends beyond geographical boundaries, encompassing the acknowledgment of past wrongs against Indigenous peoples, marginalized communities, and minority groups.

The voicing of the land acknowledgment signals a commitment to equity and diversity, creating an environment where everyone’s voice is heard and valued.

Acknowledging reconciliation at the outset of meetings builds trust and strengthens relationships among participants. It demonstrates a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths and engage in meaningful dialogue about the legacy of colonialism, oppression, and discrimination.

The land acknowledgment also opens the door for honest conversations about privilege, power dynamics, and systemic injustices, fostering empathy and understanding among individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Through the reconciliation process, relationships based on mutual respect and solidarity are cultivated, laying the foundation for collaborative action and social change.

Reconciliation acknowledgment is an essential step towards healing historical wounds and addressing intergenerational trauma. By acknowledging past injustices and their ongoing impacts, it validates the experiences of those who have been marginalized and oppressed.

This acknowledgment is not merely symbolic but serves as a tangible commitment to truth-telling, justice, and reconciliation. It provides an opportunity for healing and restoration, allowing individuals and communities to confront the legacies of the past and work towards a more equitable and inclusive future.


Canadians grieve the finding of the mass graves at the Kamloops Indian residential school, the 215 children lost to their families when they were taken by the government, but also for their lost lives.

Joanne Mills, the Executive Director of the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre, has expressed concern about overuse of the the word reconciliation.

“Reconciliation in Canada is more about the acknowledgement that there were wrongs, but there isn’t a lot of action attached to it. It’s difficult to be talking about reconciliation while one party is in power and another is still asking for rights from the former.

There definitely isn’t an equal power distribution. We’re not coming to the table as peers, we’re still coming to the table as have and have-nots,” she says.

Joanne Mills says for reconciliation to take shape, there needs to be an honest attempt to restore to Indigenous people what was taken at the time of colonization.

“I just don’t want to talk about the stereotypes anymore. People should go and educate themselves and learn the truth,” Mills says.

Mills says inequality remains in areas of provincial jurisdiction, such as the high rates of Indigenous kids in foster care in B.C., access to education and over representation of Indigenous people in prison.

B.C. has seen changes in elementary and secondary school curriculum to include more education about Indigenous people, but there have been bumps along the way. Some teachers say they are at a loss on how to teach Indigenous content. Others say they lack sufficient resources.

The adoption of reconciliation acknowledgments reflects a broader societal shift towards acknowledging and confronting the injustices of the past, promoting dialogue, understanding, and working towards an inclusive and equitable future. While the genesis of the reconciliation acknowledgment vary across contexts, its underlying principles of recognition, respect and reconciliation remain universal.

#BCPoli | Premier David Eby’s 2nd Worst Nightmare Unfolding

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Mario Canseco’s Research Co poll released on January 31, 2024 places the BC NDP in first place

Premier David Eby’s second worst nightmare continues to unfold less than nine months before the 2024 British Columbia provincial election.

David Eby’s worst nightmare, of course, would be a repeat of the 2001 British Columbia election, when voters went to the polls, leaving only two seats from the NDP majority government that held power from 1991 through 2001. From 2001 through 2005, Joy McPhail & Jenny Kwan held the fort for B.C.’s New Democratic Party. Failure on that scale in 2024 would be unimaginably devastating.

In fact, there is a 2001 provincial election scenario that is, at present, unfolding in British Columbia, but it is a redux version of 2001, where the B.C. New Democratic Party has gained the confidence and largesse of British Columbia voters — seeming to give David Eby, and the BC NDP, an overwhelming majority — and where the renamed name B.C. Liberal Party — now inaptly named, B.C. United — look to be wiped out as a political force in our province, as they seem set to retain a mere six seats in the Legislature, in a house where 93 Members of the Legislature will sit.

Below, we’ll get to why the above scenario is Premier Eby’s 2nd worst nightmare.


Sonia Furstenau, Green Party of British Columbia leader, changing ridings before the 2024 election

On the last day of January 2024, Sonia Furstenau announced to the world that she is giving up on British Columbia politics, that she’s frustrated, fed up, worn out, is devastated that British Columbians have failed to support her tenure as leader of the Green Party of B.C.,  her integrity, her hard work and that of her Green Party colleague, Adam Olsen, and that a very centrist British Columbia electorate have thrown their support to a centrist British Columbia New Democratic Party under the leadership of David Eby, and cast her and her Green Party of British Columbia aside, and no longer want her in place to challenge a B.C. NDP government.

Did Sonia Furstenau voice the (fictional) concerns raised above, yesterday?

No. But she might as well have.


Beacon Hill Park, in Victoria

For, you see, Ms. Furstenau announced Wednesday that in the upcoming 2024 provincial election, rather than run again in the very safe Green Party supporting riding of Cowichan Valley, which she has held comfortably since 2016, instead Ms. Furstenau has chosen to devastate her Green Party supporters and the voting electorate in the Cowichan Valley, by announcing that come this autumn, she will run for office in the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill — perhaps the safest NDP seat in the province — where she will challenge popular incumbent, Grace Lore, the current Minister of Children and Family Development in the David Eby government.

Note should be made that due to redistribution, Ms. Furstenau’s riding was divided in half, statistically giving the B.C. NDP a three-to-one advantage in the new ridings should she decide to run in either of the two new ridings. Pulling out of the political fray in the Cowichan Valley where she believes she cannot win, in favour of certain defeat in Victora-Beacon Hill, to VanRamblings seems to be a Hobson’s choice.

The above said, we wish Ms. Furstenau well in her political “retirement”, because most assuredly she will not win re-election come this Saturday, October 19th.

VanRamblings imagines after clearing her office she will take some time off, vacationing with her husband, perhaps returning in the spring to supply teach in her Cowichan Valley school district, where the administration will be over the moon to have her back in the fold, given the dire shortage of teachers in our province.


Vancouver Island University, entrance to the Cowichan campus administration office

Returning to teaching will also afford Ms. Furstenau to put in the time necessary to raise her pension to 80% of her annual average teachers’ salary of $90,000+ — whether she resumes her teaching career in the Cowichan Valley, or her “new home” in British Columbia’s capital city, where she would be closer to family.


The University of Victoria

Upon retirement at age 65, Ms. Furstenau will live in comfort financially, her home paid off, her teachers’ pension  paying handsomely, supplemented by her Member of the Legislature / leader of the Green Party of BC provincial government pension. In addition, we also expect Vancouver Island University’s Cowichan campus, or should Ms. Furstenau remains in Victoria, the University of Victoria will want to bring her on staff as an instructor, to conduct an evening class or two.

If seeing his current 57-member strong New Democratic Party caucus reduced to two seats, as was the cataclysmic case in 2001, is the nightmare electoral scenario that David Eby fears most (an event unlikely to unfold), as we’ve written previously, securing 80 seats in the Legislature is certainly a nightmare electoral October 19th scenario that our Premier is hoping against hope will not unfold.

Why? As we’ve written previously, and will write again many times in the months to come: with 57 seats in the Legislature, including the Premier’s own Vancouver Point Grey riding seat, British Columbia’s beloved, soon-to-be-a-father for the third time (come June!), the Premier is perfectly content with 57 seats, a comfortable majority, just the right number of seats in the House to portion out Ministers, Parliamentary Secretary and House Speaker jobs,  keep his caucus members busy, keeping them happy, as well, as this “extra work” affords each of the members of the NPD caucus additional salary to their $115,045.93 annual MLA compensation.

Much more than a 57-seat win, and the Premier faces undesired “trouble”, cuz there are no more additional, well-paying jobs for him to give out, leaving the “extra NDP MLAs” largely disenfranchised, and at loose ends with themselves.

Next thing you know, a rump group of B.C. Dippers will hive off from the provincial party to form their own — say, five member, environmentally-minded, opposed to LNG and fracking — B.C. political party, affording them the “extra monies” they heretofore had been denied. Politics, lemme tell ya, it ain’t for the faint of heart.


Kevin Falcon, leader of B.C. United, and decidedly on the right, B.C. Conservative leader, John Rustad

Politically in British Columbia, we seem to be living in a redux period.

In 1991, as “Premier” Rita Johnson — when disgraced Socred Premier Bill Vander Zalm  resigned from office, the party chose Ms. Johnson as their leader, and Premier — championed the Social Credit party during that year’s provincial election, she not only lost government and 47  legislative seats, the Social Credit Party came in a distant third, the Social Credit Party finis / the Socreds dead, far from phoenix-like, after nearly 41 years in power, the party wiped out, and gone forever.

Once the cabal who run this province removed 1991’s Liberal leader, Gordon Wilson — who secured 17 seats for the B.C. Liberals, a revived B.C. Liberal party became the political standard-bearer for our province’s capitalist forces, an all-too-willing Gordon Campbell made leader, who in 2001 went on to become Premier.


Global BC’s Richard Zussman reports on B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon + the Greens’ Sonia Furstenau

Kevin Falcon, once a well-thought-of activist Minister in the Gordon Campbell government, will soon become the undertaker for the B.C. Liberal renamed B.C United Party, as this capitalist, free market party — whatever it’s name — will soon be but a fading memory on the political landscape of British Columbia provincial politics.


British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly

As for B.C. Conservative Party leader, John Rustad, as the far right gains power across the globe — in Canada, that would be federal Conservative Party leader, Pierre “The Destroyer” Poilievre (“Canada is broken. It’s all Justin Trudeau’s fault,”), as well as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs — steps gingerly into the political vacuum left by a mortally wounded B.C. United Party, Rustad would seem to be on track to become, perhaps, the Leader of Her Majesty’s official loyal Opposition, in the post election, post October next session of the British Columbia Legislature.

#CDNPoli | Canada’s New Dental Care Programme

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, BC Politics, canadian politics, Food & Health, News, Politics, Vancouver, , , , , ,


Don Davies, NDP member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway, since 2015.
Father of Canada’s new Dental Health Care Programme, and Dental Care for Canadians.

On Monday, December 11, 2023, the Canadian government announced a new Dental Care Programme that will cover the 9 million Canadians who do not, at present, have dental coverage.

“Far too many people have avoided getting the care that they need simply because it was too expensive, and that’s why the Dental Care Programme is essential to the health of Canadians,” federal Health Minister Mark Holland told the news conference held in early December 2023, introducing the new programme.

The Canadian Dental Care Programme when fully implemented will provide dental care to families whose annual net income is less than $90,000, and who don’t have access to private insurance. Full coverage, with no co-pay will be available to families whose annual net income falls below $70,000, while Canadian families with an income between $70,000 and $90,000 will pay a co-pay fee, as per the chart above.

Canada’s federal Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, set aside and has budgeted $13 billion over a five-year period, commencing in early 2024, to pay for Canada’s new Dental Care Programme, introduced in her most recent budget, on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, or $2.6 billion per year drawn from Canada’s current annual federal budget of $497 billion dollars, which is to say, 0.523139 per cent of our annual federal budget, just a tad over half a per cent to fully cover the 9 million Canadians across our land who currently suffer without any dental coverage.

The introduction of Canada’s new Dental Care Programme occurs as a consequence of the Supply and Confidence Agreement struck on March 22, 2022 between the governing Liberals and the opposition New Democrats, that since its implementation has affected legislation introduced by Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal party, ranging from legislation that bans the use of replacement workers (scabs) in federally regulated workplaces during a strike or lockout; Bill C-58 preventing employers from hiring “scabs” to do the work of unionized employees on strike or locked out, to the implementation of a groundbreaking dental care programme that will cover 9 million Canadians currently without dental care coverage.

Negotiation for an inclusive Canada-wide dental care programme began shortly after the signing of the Supply and Confidence Agreement, the negotiation involving then federal Liberal Health Minister Jean Yves-Duclos, and the New Democratic Party’s well-respected Health Care critic, Vancouver-Kingsway MP, Don Davies.

For much of the past two and a half years, the negotiation for an expansive and inclusive, publicly-funded Canadian dental care plan was an uphill battle for NDP Health Care critic Don Davies, as Jean Yves-Duclos and Mr. Davies parried back and forth, the process of realizing the new programme an at times arduous, unresponsive and unforgiving one. All that changed for the better, though, in recent months.

Don Davies is, indeed, Canada’s dental health care warrior, and the father of publicly-funded dental health care in Canada, as Tommy Douglas was the father of Medicare. For Don Davies, patience and persistence has paid off for all Canadians.

Final negotiation for the introduction and implementation of Canada’s new Dental Care Plan began in earnest when Don Davies’ good friend, former Liberal House Leader Mark Holland was appointed as Canada’s Health Minister, in September.

Mark Holland and Don Davies are known on Parliament Hill as Batman and Robin, are very good friends, and on the same page when it comes to social legislation. When making the announcement of Canada’s new dental care programme last month, very much together on the same stage, at the same podium, you could see their obvious affection for one another, as well as pride and joy at a job well done.

Canada’s new Dental Care Plan will be phased in over the course of the next year.

Now: the details of the phase in strategy, how and how much dentists will be paid, and what the new Dental Care Plan will cover, as told to VanRamblings by Don Davies at a Town Hall conducted in his riding, in November, just prior to the federal government’s announcement of the implementation of one of the largest, most inclusive pan-Canadian social programmes legislated into being in the past 50 years.

Mr. Davies told those assembled at the Town Hall that in 2022 – 2023 an exhaustive search took place to identify an insurance corporation that could efficiently and effectively administer Canada’s proposed new Dental Care Programme.

In June 2023, Mr. Duclos and Mr. Davies made the decision to turn over the administration of Canada’s proposed new Dental Care Plan to Sun Life Canada, one of our country’s largest public companies, and at present one of the world’s largest multi-national life and health insurance, and asset management companies.

The following is the mandate of Sun Life, the task they have been charged with by the federal government that will lead to the realization of Canada’s new Dental Care Plan, covering the 9 million Canadians currently without dental insurance …

  • Sign up 90% of Canadian dentists to the country’s new Dental Care Plan. Dentists will be paid 85% of their province’s Dental Fee Schedule. Sun Life is to reimburse dentists within 48 hours of dentists submitting their claim to Sun Life Financial;
  • In December 2023, Sun Life began signing up all eligible Canadians aged 87 and older, with eligible seniors set to be contacted and signed up in March 2024. Dental coverage for the former group is set to begin as early as May 2024;
  • Effective June 2024, Sun Life will begin to sign up all eligible Canadian children, birth to 18 years of age, dental coverage for this cohort to begin this late summer;
  • All remaining eligible Canadians will be registered for Canada’s new Dental Care Programme effective this autumn, with implementation of coverage for this cohort to start at the beginning of, or early in 2025.

Thus far, the roll-out of Canada’s new Dental Care Programme moves on apace, with the sign-up of Canadian dentists moving ahead as projected, with the sign-up of Canadians also moving ahead as projected, the Dental Care Programme set to be fully realized by the end of 2024, covering the 9 million eligible Canadians.

Applications will open in phases, starting with seniors aged 87, which began in December 2023, followed by other age groups as per the chart above.

Coverage under the Canada’s new Dental Care Plan will commence as early as May 2024, with seniors being the first group eligible. The actual start date for accessing oral health care will depend on the specific group you belong to, the timing of your application, and when your enrolment is processed.

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for: what dental procedures will be covered ?

  • Oral surgery services, including tooth extractions;
  • Restorative services, including fillings for cavities, cracks, and broken teeth;
  • Crowns, but as Mr. Davies told VanRamblings last week, “only if medically necessary.” As an example, if you have a crown, but the gums beneath the crown become infected and in order to resolve the infection, the existing crown must be removed, and replaced, such would be considered “medically necessary”, and the expense involved in the dental work, taking an impression of the crown/tooth, and the manufacture and subsequent Crown placement in your mouth would be fully covered;
  • Repairing a chipped tooth, bonding the most likely repair route your dentist will likely recommend;
  • Root canals (endodontic therapy), the dental treatment for infections in tooth pulp, the innermost layer of your teeth;
  • A full and in-depth teeth cleaning, including scaling, sealants, a flouride treatment (if so desired) and polishing;
  • Dental X-rays, to evaluate your dental health;
  • General anesthesia, also known as deep sedation dentistry, if required;
  • Partial and complete dentures;
  • Orthodontic services, including braces and retainers, and much more;
  • Periodontal care, the branch of dentistry that focuses on the health of your gums and jawbone — the tissues that support your teeth. A periodontist is a gum specialist.

At present, the only dental procedures that will not be covered — unless they are considered medically necessary — are veneers and tooth implants, which are considered to be cosmetic dentistry, rather than a medically necessary procedure.

In somewhat related good news, federal Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, who last spring in Parliament, and in front of crowds at the Trump-like rallies he holds, was adamant that the first two “fiscally prudent” measures he would take upon becoming Prime Minister would be to cancel $1.3 billion in annual funding for the CBC, cutting as well the annual $2.6 billion funding for public dental care, has for the latter — according to Lisa Raitt, former Minister of Transport / Labour / Natural Resources during the 10-year term of the Stephen Harper government — in a recent discussion on CTV News Channel’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos, told Ms. Kapelos that Mr. Poilievre, recognizing that by the time the next federal election rolls around in the fall of 2025 that Canada’s new Dental Care Programme will be fully implemented and popular with Canadians across the land, and because becoming Prime Minister is of paramount importance to him, has reversed himself on his commitment to cancel the Dental Care Programme …

” … as Erin O’Toole did in 2019, when initially he told Canadians that a key plank in his platform would be to cancel the wildly popular Canada Child Benefit, reversing himself on the matter before the 2021 federal election, lest it become an issue that would cause his defeat. Canada’s new Dental Care Plan is here to stay,” Ms. Raitt told Ms. Kapelos, and her fellow panel members.

Once enrolled, Canadian residents who qualify will be sent a welcome package by Sun Life, with a member card and a starting date for when their oral health care services will be covered. Those Canadians who are eligible for enrolment in the new Dental Care Plan will be able to start experiencing oral health-care as early as May 2024, as above, commencing with coverage for Canada’s seniors population.

#BCPoli | David Robert Patrick Eby, 37th Premier of British Columbia

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, , , , , ,

As of today, Friday, November 18, 2022, David Eby becomes the 37th Premier of the Province of British Columbia. Glad tidings for our province, and glad tidings for the British Columbia New Democratic Party, B.C.’s current sitting government.

David Eby, the duly elected three-term Member of the Legislature, who since his election to Victoria in 2013, has more than ably represented his many grateful constituents who reside in his Vancouver Point-Grey riding, as a community activist extraordinaire, and an on the ground advocate for any constituent who walks through the doors of his constituency office located on West Broadway just west of Macdonald, in the heart of the welcoming westside Kitsilano neighbourhood.

David Eby and David Eby alone will salvage a somewhat long in the tooth BC New Democratic government, as a steady as she goes but decidedly activist Premier intent on getting things done for all British Columbians, resident in the North, throughout the Interior, on Vancouver Island & across B.C.’s urban metropolises.

David Eby may well be the most sympathetic and authentic political figure this province has ever seen — just you wait and see — and as such represents not just the great hope of the BC NDP to retain government past the 2024 provincial election, but the great hope for all British Columbians who, over the next 24 months, will come to cherish David Eby as the once-in-a-generation inspirational leader who will lead our province through the certain-to-be challenging times ahead.

Premier David Eby has his work cut out for him, but from all reports he’s going to hit the ground running.

In an October 7, 2022 column in The Vancouver Sun, arising from an extensive poll by Angus Reid gauging the rate of satisfaction British Columbians felt for the incumbent John Horgan government, columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote …

“An opinion poll this week from the Angus Reid institute indicated the public is far from content with the NDP’s handling of major issues. On homelessness, the opioid crisis, labour shortages and seniors care — the verdict was negative: “poor/very poor job.”

Those responding to the survey gave the NDP government a 73% negative rating on health care, a 77% negative on dealing with the cost of living, and an 85% negative rating for its handling of housing affordability.

New Democrats should be worried about what happens when Premier John Horgan, the most popular British Columbia leader in decades, exits the Premier’s office, leaving behind only public discontent over how the government has been handling the major issues.”

Then Premier-designate David Eby’s response to the Angus Reid poll, and Mr. Palmer’s concerning column in The Vancouver Sun?


Premier David Eby releases 100-day plan for B.C. housing, health & safety

An article in the Canadian Press reads: “The B.C. New Democrats’ newly minted leader and Premier is promising “significant action” to bolster the province’s affordable housing, health-care system, public safety and environmental policies.”

At a press conference, David Eby rolled out his plans for his first 100 days.

“I’m setting down a marker today on these priorities for our government: housing, health care, the environment, public safety,” he said at a news conference.

“At the end of those 100 days, you will have seen announcements (and) activity from a government focused on delivering results for British Columbians that set out the groundwork for how, in the next two years, we are going to deliver significant change for British Columbians.”

Eby campaigned for leader on a housing plan that includes a $500-million fund to provide grants to non-profits & First Nations to buy rental properties, pledging to fast-track approvals & construction of multi-family housing projects.

On the health-care front, Premier Eby said his government will be looking at the process used to assess people with international credentials “to get them working as quickly as possible” to address a dire need in the health system.

When it comes to concerns over public safety, Premier Eby said there are issues where the criminal justice system is not responding they way it needs to.

“You will see action from our government on this issue. But what you will see is action that actually addresses the core issue that is causing so much chaos in communities: the issues of mental health, addiction, homelessness, and the need to intervene and break the cycle that people are involved in,” he said.

Mr. Eby is also promising to redirect fossil fuel subsidies to clean energy.

“British Columbians are really clear, we cannot continue to subsidize fossil fuels and expect clean energy to manifest somehow. We cannot continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals,” he said.

One week ago, David Eby released a bold plan to take ownership of the DTES.


David Eby, then a lawyer with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, speaks to reporters in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2009. Photo by Ric Ernst /PNG

The area is worse than ever, says Eby, who knows whereof he speaks. As a young, activist lawyer, Eby got his start representing the residents of the DTES, writes Vaughn Palmer in a November 11th article in the Vancouver Sun.

Instead of joining the legions of buck-passers, Premier Eby proposes that his government take ownership of the troubled area.

“The key piece that’s been missing has been a single level of government to bottom line what’s happening in the neighbourhood,” Eby declared early in his bid for the NDP leadership.

“The crisis in the Downtown Eastside is well beyond what the city of Vancouver can take on, on their own. Ottawa is too far away.”

“The opportunity here is for the province to take a leadership role and say we will take responsibility. We will co-ordinate this. We’ll work with the city. We’ll work with the feds. We’ll work with the large Indigenous population down there.”

Measures will include replacing the single-room occupancy hotels “that are burning down, that people won’t live in, and replacing them with appropriate housing,” says Eby.

He’ll also replace the sidewalk-clogging tent cities that are the area’s most obvious sign of deterioration.

“I don’t support encampments,” Eby told Richard Zussman of Global TV. “I don’t think they’re a solution to homelessness. I don’t think they’re safe for the people who live in them. I’ve seen too many fires, too many injuries. People have died.”

Another element of Premier  Eby’s thinking about the crisis on the streets emerged back in August when he came out in favour of involuntary treatment for people who overdose repeatedly.

“When someone overdoses twice in a day and they show up in the emergency room for the second time, a second overdose in the same day, the idea that we release that person back out into the street to overdose the third time and die or to have profound brain injury or just to come back to the emergency room again, seems very bizarre,” Eby told Postmedia’s Katie DeRosa.

“We need to have better interventions and that could include and should include involuntary care for people to make sure they at least have a chance,” he said.

Make no mistake, Premier David Eby means to make a difference, as PostMedia’s Katie DeRosa wrote just two days ago, David Eby, as an …

“Idealist and pragmatist. Activist and member of the establishment. Workaholic and yoga dad. Fixer of the root causes of crime, housing unaffordability and a crumbling health care system, intractable issues he’s under pressure to make progress on before he faces B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon in the 2024 election.

Those around him say the 46-year-old father of two is driven, laser-focused and relentless and will likely expect the same from members of his soon-to-be-named Cabinet, the swearing-in of Premier Eby’s new and revitalized Cabinet set for December 7th. He’s also not afraid to defy those he believes are standing in the way of progress, which is why he has promised to override local mayors reluctant to approve affordable housing projects.

“His approach is calm, methodical, considerate, and broad-thinking,” says Joy MacPhail, the former NDP Cabinet Minister and interim party leader, and ICBC Board Chair when the reforms were underway in 2018, who remains a mentor to Eby.”


Premier-delegate David Eby and his transition team. Left to right: Chief of Staff Matt Smith; co-chair of the transition team, Doug White, chair of B.C.’s First Nations Justice Council & former chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation; Premier David Eby; and former BC NDP leader and Finance Minister, Carole James, a co-chair of the transition team. Photo by Darren Stone /Victoria Times Colonist

David Eby was sworn in as Premier at the Musqueam Community Centre, the location a powerful symbol of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, Eby told PostMedia’s Katie DeRosa.

Mr. Eby took the oath of office at 10 a.m. this morning in front of Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin at the community centre on the Musqueam First Nation.

“I am excited to be taking this important step close to home where my family and the people who have always supported me live,” Eby said Tuesday in a statement.

Mr. Eby said he’s grateful to Chief Wayne Sparrow, the Musqueam councillors and the Musqueam people for hosting the ceremony in their community.

“Because of their efforts, this event will be a powerful symbol of a shared vision for a province that delivers results for all British Columbians, in close partnership with Indigenous Peoples,” he said.

The community centre at 6735 Salish Dr. in Vancouver is in the Vancouver-Quilchena riding, which is represented by B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon. David Eby, 46, is the MLA for the neighbouring riding, Vancouver-Point Grey.

Moving the swearing-in ceremony to Vancouver is also an indication Premier Eby will likely conduct more government business from Vancouver, to be closer to his family. Mr. Eby’s wife, Dr. Cailey Lynch, is a family physician, and the happily married couple have two children, 8-year-old Ezra and 3-year-old Iva.