Thursday September 25, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
Editorial by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
What an exasperating waste of journalism time to be chasing after accusations against a BC cabinet minister or a government department over the cost of doing business. And a turnoff for many British Columbians who are frequently pelted with information overload — oftentimes misinformation or disinformation.
Elected officials travel on government business for the benefit of taxpayers and yettake pot-shots at them for this work is still sadly part of the job for journalists.
Drumming up this sort of ‘news’ by a third-party is an exercise that at best is political theatre — not on the part of the elected officials but usually by opposition forces including special interest groups. It’s (yawn) a boring example of how nit-picking on a sidepoint (i.e. a case of deliberate distraction) is a tactic that turns off the public and uses up valuable journalism time that could be spent on exploring and reporting on the bigger issues of how, in this case, the province is grappling with the big-picture work on addressing the impacts of the rising cost of everything.
Complaining about what the bill was to transport six people on official business for a couple of days might be held up as an ‘example’ of government mis-spending, but the bigger issue of more value to British Columbians is how the province is restructuring its approach to reshaping the overall economy that sustains everyone.
Sure, it might be painted as a small example of a larger problem (i.e. if they spend like this on small things, what about the bigger stuff), but is it a problem?
Government takes big trips (aka ‘trade missions’) as a regular part of doing business to present the province’s best opportunities (in this case in the life sciences sector), to explore new ones, or to initiate or finalize deals or agreements. It’s a sad tactic to try and blow these numbers out of proportion by hooking the public into an interpretation of the numbers as if it were their own household or business budget.
“The numbers used in that article were not accurate. It was half that amount … less than $20,000 for this trip (for six people”, said Bailey, adding that the way this information came out was normal financial disclosure as a regular part of government business. “These are disclosures that we make as politicians… in the normal course of doing business,” she added.
“The province’s life sciences strategy is such an integral component to our (the province’s economic strategy),” Bailey pointed out as part of justifying the trip to BIO in Boston in June 2023 that was attended by economic development ministers from several Canadian provinces.
She pointed out that just recently a $360 million investment was made in BC in the life sciences sector.
The provincial government runs big numbers — bigger than local government and bigger than your household budget. Stirring up outrage over poorly explained numbers is sloppy at best.
If there is any ‘fault’ in the amounts that were spent on the trip being flashed in front of people in this latest example of mudslinging is that consequential rips like the one Minister Bailey was on in 2023 are coordinated by travel agency-type services or another government jurisdiction that profits from supporting delegations on business trips.
At the very least, cost-attentive BC government officials may have been caught in the swirl of ‘when in Rome’ — they were invited on a business trip and this is ‘what you do’ when you’re in a fast-paced American city on a business trip. You dine in high-end restaurants because that’s where the tour takes you. Minister Bailey used Wendy’s (i.e a fast-food restaurant) as an example of what she might have otherwise done. But when you’re meeting with corporate businesses to clinch a deal, you don’t do that in a fast-food outlet.
Sorry folks, that’s the way of the world — at least it was in 2023. And still is — Bailey today said she would do it again, as in attending good opportunities for promoting what BC has to offer in the way of economic opportunities.
“We’re taking a very careful lens to all travel,” said Bailey today.
The claim that drew Minister Bailey to the microphone in the lobby at UBCM on Wednesday afternoon — to explain and defend — is a frustrating example of why politics turns people off. Not what the politician had to do but why she had to do it. And while professional and calm, Bailey was clearly frustrated at the tacky antics of the Canadian (BC branch) Taxpayers Association (in their September 24 article) to try and discredit the now Finance Minister and the government’s spending on travel.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey (at the time in 2023 as Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation) said she and five others — on a trip to a bio tech conference in Boston in 2023 — spent about $6,000 on in-town transportation costs during the conference. The Canadian Taxpayers Association said it was a limo and that there were four staff on the trip.
Perhaps the only positive value in this charade was the opportunity for Minister Bailey to present the facts. It was an SVU (not a limo), said Bailey today in a hastily organized media scrum during the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Victoria. It was a vehicle much the same as many British Columbians might drive to and from work or travel with family or colleagues as a group — to transport people on the province’s business in a city far away where the focus was landing new business for the BC economy.
This is much ado about nothing. Well, perhaps not ‘nothing’. It was an opportunity for Bailey to set the record straight. But the antics thrust upon her and the government were corny at best as well as costly in terms of time (for politicians, government staff and media) during an important five-day gathering of government officials.
Good on Bailey for getting the context of the 2023 trip into the public domain and upscaling the opportunity by promoting the lifesciences sector. And good on the professional media for setting aside their other important work covering UBCM and the government’s work on the economy to ensure that antics are put in their place.
Think of it as putting out a small brush fire before it gets out of control.
===== RELATED:
- Strong future for BC economy through investment & innovation says finance minister (September 24, 2025)
- Life sciences sector gets BC boost by Bailey in Boston (June 5, 2023)
- NEWS SECTIONS: BUSINESS & ECONOMY | UBCM