Vaughn Palmer: Another secret comes back to bite NDP's David Eby

VICTORIA — The New Democrats have been working in secret to limit the province’s obligation to pay compensation to forest companies for the loss of timber-cutting rights on some 400 parcels of land being transferring to First Nations.

The NDP government says it can no longer afford to pay compensation because of “ongoing fiscal restraints,” meaning the record debt and deficits accumulated under Premier David Eby.

The plan was laid out in confidential documents leaked to Northern Beat, an online publication, and published Thursday.

This latest revelation is reminiscent of the deal the New Democrats struck before the last election to deliver $104 million and six square kilometres of public land to the shíshálh nation on the Sunshine Coast.

The Eby government signed that deal in confidence weeks before the formal start of the election campaign. The terms were not made public until January 2025, well after the New Democrats were returned to office.

The revelation proved a major embarrassment for Randene Neill, newly elected NDP MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast. She had to explain to constituents that she didn’t tell them about the deal because the NDP government didn’t tell her.

The Sunshine Coast coverup was recalled this week when Northern Beat editor Fran Yanor asked NDP Leader David Eby if similar repeats were in the works prior this year’s snap election.

Eby ignored the question, his practice when he’d rather not talk about his record.

Next day, Northern Beat published the proof that the New Democrats had been working on at least one secret they were not revealing to the electorate.

“The B.C. NDP government has committed to hand over approximately 400 parcels of public Crown land to First Nations, while promising just days before the snap election that it would change the law to limit compensation to forest companies affected by the losses,” read the story by Rob Shaw.

“The revelation is contained inside briefing documents labelled “confidential” (and) dated Sept. 10, less than two weeks before Premier David Eby called a snap election. Anyone who wanted to see the material was forced by government to sign a non-disclosure agreement to remain quiet during the election period.”

The documents further disclosed that the legislation to limit compensation was already in the works for introduction next year. But as the story noted, there was no mention of the plan in the forestry section of the NDP election platform.

After Northern Beat posted the documents themselves on its site, Eby faced questions from reporters at a new conference later Thursday.

The NDP leader played down the significance of his latest exercise in secrecy and coverup. He insisted that the government was merely involved in consultations with Indigenous leaders and forest companies, behind the usual wall of non-disclosure agreements.

The 400 parcels of land were related to a series of treaties and agreements with First Nations, some dating back to the previous B.C. Liberal government. He did not provide any details on the amount of land or compensation involved

He did agree that the province’s shrinking ability to pay was the driving force behind the legislation.

“This does help reduce pressure on the provincial budget, there’s no question about it,” said Eby. “It also enables forestry to go ahead in a number of different parts of the province because of those agreements.”

Far from enabling forestry to go ahead, the industry has protested that the limit on compensation would be another burden on an already troubled sector.

“The concept of actually taking back portions of a tenure without compensating is just really unacceptable,” said Kim Haakstad, president of the Council of Forest Industries.

“The forest industry is in a deepening crisis in British Columbia, and to receive another proposal from the government that says ‘we’re going to make it harder for you to do business in British Columbia’ is really problematic.”

At the end of the news conference Thursday, Eby was asked about the pattern of secrecy harking back to the Sunshine Coast agreement and forward to this case.

He replied that he “struggles with your characterization of our government,” when in his view the Conservatives are even more secretive about their intentions.

I was struck by something that popped out of the files when I looked back at the controversy over the belated release of the Sunshine Coast agreement following the last election.

“We should have found a way to get this out the door before the election,” conceded the then deputy minister of Indigenous Relations, Tom McCarthy. “I know we can do better and we will do better.”

Today, McCarthy is the deputy minister for policy and coordination in Eby’s office. And I see no evidence that his boss has learned a thing from the fallout over the last time he chose to keep the electorate in the dark.