Opinion: Premier Eby seeks to suspend democracy in B.C. with Bill 7​on March 27, 2025 at 1:00 am

On March 13, B.C. Premier David Eby proposed new legislation to give himself and his cabinet sweeping powers to unilaterally change almost any provincial law and regulation without legislative approval or review.

While the legislation — dubbed the Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act — has yet to be enacted into law, the fact that the government proposed such unprecedented powers is deeply concerning and a genuine threat to our democracy.

Only five months ago, British Columbians went to the polls and delivered a sobering victory to Eby’s incumbent NDP government, which lost eight of its 55 seats and ended up with 47 of 93 seats, the narrowest “majority” possible. The popular vote was nearly dead even between the NDP (44.86 per cent) and the upstart Conservative party (43.28 per cent).

Even Eby acknowledged the voters sent his government a message and promised to work together with other parties.

“After a close and hard-fought campaign, it’s now time to come together to deliver for people,” he said. “British Columbians have asked us to work together and make life better for them.”

“Work together” in a democracy means embracing a deliberative and, at times, messy process. Thoughtful policy-making takes time. It’s a core feature of democracy. No leader has all the knowledge to act unilaterally to do what’s right. We need the legislature to weigh competing viewpoints through rigorous and transparent debate — that’s how our system works.

Yet according to the Eby government, the Act will lead to the opposite and provide “temporary authority to cabinet … to modify the application or effect of B.C. laws and regulations.”

In other words, if approved, it will allow Eby and his cabinet to override provincial laws, regulations, bylaws, rules, resolutions, practices, policies, standards, procedures and other measures without approval or review by the elected legislature.

That’s not how our system is supposed to work.

To put it more starkly, the Eby government is telling British Columbians that 23 cabinet ministers and four ministers of state can sufficiently decide almost any matter pertaining to the government without democratic approval or input from Opposition parties.

It’s by all measures an extraordinary circumvention of the province’s democratic institutions.