Vancouver Sun ePaper

The making of a political football

NDP learned this art from the Liberals, and they learned the lesson very well

VAUGHN PALMER vpalmer@postmedia.com

Tourism Minister Melanie Mark confirmed this week that despite the controversy over the $1-billion makeover of the provincial museum, the New Democrats are going full speed ahead.

“We're working as quickly as possible,” she told Simi Sara on radio station CKNW.

Her claim to be working quickly is at odds with the NDP'S leisurely schedule for the replacement facility: construction starting 2026, official opening 2030.

But the New Democrats aren't holding back in ridding themselves of the existing museum.

They began tearing out the third-floor exhibits at the beginning of this year in their drive to “decolonialize” the place.

The entire museum closes permanently on Sept. 6.

Once the contents are moved into storage, a wrecking crew will begin dismantling the museum itself.

Demolition starts in March 2024, seven months before that year's election.

The timing is no coincidence, judging from something else Mark said this week.

“Government is about making choices,” she told reporters in noting that the B.C. Liberals failed to deal with replacing the museum when they were in office.

“There was a duty to act and nothing was done,” said the NDP minister. “We are here to say this is the right thing to do.”

Mark's comments cast a telling light on Premier John Horgan's claim to “regret that the museum has become a political football.”

His government is doing what it can to make it a political football.

B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon, who vows to cancel the project if he wins the next election, has no illusions about the NDP'S timing on demolition.

“The premier wants to make sure that I don't stop it,” Falcon told Harjinder Thind on radio CKYE this week. “Otherwise, there's no reason why they have to close it down in September ... they haven't even got design drawings” on the replacement.

If the New Democrats decided to expedite the demolition for political reasons, “then shame on John Horgan and the NDP,” said Liberal house leader Todd Stone.

“British Columbians should know that if they do demolish this museum prematurely, what they're essentially doing is putting a big gaping hole in downtown Victoria that will be there for 10 years.”

Stone was part of a B.C. Liberal government that played a similar game with a bigger project: the Site C hydroelectric dam.

A year before the 2017 election, then-premier Christy Clark vowed to get Site C “past the point of no return.” She pulled it off too, as John Horgan had to concede after taking over from Clark in 2017.

In opposition, Horgan declared “Site C sucks.”

In government, he continued construction because he didn't want to write off the money already spent on the project along with the cost of decommissioning.

“We just couldn't see spending $4 billion for nothing,” the NDP premier explained.

The Liberals also tried to get their replacement plan for the Massey tunnel past the point of no return before the 2017 election. They awarded contracts for site preparation, began relocating an adjacent B.C. Hydro line, and issued a call for bids on their preference for a 10-lane bridge.

Even so, the New Democrats cancelled the bridge, wrote off $100 million in sunk costs and sent the planning process back to square one.

Four years later came the NDP solution: an eight-lane tunnel that was dubbed “less crossing for more money,” because it is projected to cost hundreds of millions more than the 10-lane bridge.

The decision to substitute a tunnel for the bridge also sent the environmental review process back to square one. As a result, tunnel construction won't start for another four years.

Falcon says that provides plenty of leeway, presuming he wins the 2024 election, for him to kill the NDP tunnel and go back to the Liberal bridge.

Lately the New Democrats have been trying to get their crossing past the point of no return.

This year's provincial budget includes $137 million for a new interchange and for transit and cycling improvements at the north end of the crossing.

Those will be designed to dovetail with the eight-lane tunnel.

They will also be under construction before the election.

Or as Transportation Minister Rob Fleming put it recently: “If Kevin Falcon continues to say that he's going to cancel this project, he's going to have to rip up contracts, to expose taxpayers to more delays, more liabilities.”

Which is, of course, exactly what the New Democrats did after they took charge in 2017.

Politicians can ill afford a sense of shame when playing the game of getting projects past the point of no return.

The NDP'S handling of the museum and tunnel projects are a backhanded tribute to how well the B.C. Liberals played the game with Site C.

But as John Horgan would know from his own experience with Site C, he hasn't necessarily trapped Falcon with this approach.

Horgan, in opposition, dismissed Christy Clark's claim that she'd got the project past the point of no return.

Once in office, he turned around and supported Site C, citing information he did not have access to before he became premier.

Falcon could do the same: Oppose the projects now.

Then if — emphasis on the if — he does manage to win the election, he could reverse position based on “new information” that became available once he was safely ensconced in the premier's office.

Politicians can ill afford a sense of shame when playing the game of getting projects past the point of no return.

NEWS

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2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://vancouversun.pressreader.com/article/281805697555107

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