Eby altering controversial emergency power bill to ‘get the balance right’

The BC NDP is changing a part of a controversial bill aimed at giving the province more power to act quickly in the face of U.S. tariffs.

Premier David Eby gave an update Friday morning, taking responsibility for the blow back the government has received.

Eby promised that the BC NDP will “retool” the bill after hearing the public outcry.

“We’ve also heard from a number of people, a number of key stakeholders, including our tariff and economic response committee, Indigenous leaders, trade organizations, their anxieties that we didn’t get the balance right, that I didn’t get the balance right in terms of the ability to move quickly and necessary safeguards,” said Eby.

“So with that in mind, we’ll be pulling part four of Bill 7 to ensure that we get the balance right.”

Bill 7 has received a lot of criticism, mainly because it allows the province to make changes without getting approval from the Legislature first.

The BC Conservatives had called it “undemocratic,” while the BC Chamber of Commerce stated that it would negatively impact its members’ operations.

Part four of the bill would have empowered the Lieutenant Governor to make regulation and modify enactments so long as the action would support the B.C. economy and challenges arising from “foreign jurisdiction.”

“It’s an authority that I think we need to be able to respond quickly, with a president that can act by executive order to harm us very quickly. And we do need to be able to respond quickly. So my intent is to take the bill away to work with key stakeholders find a version that addresses the safeguards that they would like to see, the engagement that they would like to see, but still addresses that ability to move very quickly to protect British Columbians,” Eby explained Friday.

Earlier in the week, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon defended the scope of the bill when speaking to 1130 NewsRadio.

Kahlon said at the time that the level of uncertainty that the Trump administration presents shows the need to change course at a moment’s notice.

“The reason for bringing this is so that we’re nimble and able to respond quickly to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada. We need to protect workers. We need to protect industries that may be impacted,” Kahlon said on Tuesday.

You can watch CityNews 24/7 live or listen live to 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver to keep up to date with this story. You can also subscribe to breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.