Friday March 28, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Why are political parties, business and rights activists struggling with the BC Government’s Bill 7?
The Bill is intended to speed up the province’s response to economic threats that may come from the US administration, which is considered unpredictable under President Donald Trump.
But there seems to be wide consensus that part of the Bill was overreach, i.e. too much could be done swiftly that would have no opportunity for review before impacts would happen.
Why isn’t the State of Emergency power (as used during the pandemic) sufficient or suitable to use in responding to what may come against BC businesses, workers and entire industrial sectors?
“As the Premier laid out this morning, the situation we are in is unprecedented and has no recent historical equivalence,” says Attorney General Niki Sharma in a statement to Island Social Trends.
“In assessing the playing field, we determined that the kind of quick action we would need to take during a trade war to counter potentially devastating impacts on B.C.’s economy would not be possible under our current set up. That is why we introduced Bill 7, which lays out ways for government to speedily reduce barriers to interprovincial trade and address procurement and tolling,” the AG stated.
“However, we heard clearly that what we proposed in Part 4 didn’t hit the mark, so we are pulling that piece from the current bill to allow the other pieces to proceed quickly through the legislature,” said Sharma.
Part 4 would have allowed a period of time (up to two years) considered to be too long for adequate political scrutiny.
“The remaining components of Bill 7 are not comparable to the legislation used in British Columbia to declare a state of emergency during the pandemic,” says Sharma.
“They are built to deal with interprovincial trade barriers, procurement direction, and tolling. We will continue to ensure that B.C. is prepared to respond quickly to Trump, no matter what he throws at us, in collaboration with our partners and using all the tools and powers available at our disposal,” the Attorney General stated.
Also see:
- Premier Eby to review the powers of Bill 7 fast-response to US threats (March 28, 2025)
- New BC legislation to strengthen quick response to US tariff economic threats (March 13, 2025)
===== RELATED:
- Premier Eby to review the powers of Bill 7 fast-response to US threats (March 28, 2025)
- Premier Eby about Trump’s tariff war: draconian, terrible, short-sighted and foolish (March 14, 2025)
- New BC legislation to strengthen quick response to US tariff economic threats (March 13, 2025)
- Premier Eby criticizes USA for pending higher softwood lumber export tariffs (March 3, 2025)
- Canadian Premiers hustled through a day of meetings in Washington DC (February 13, 2025)
- BC retaliatory tariffs are suspended for now but procurement shift continues (February 3, 2025)
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