Friday March 28, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 2:11 pm | Updated at 4:58 pm & on March 29, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
BC Premier Eby and his economic tariff committee will be doing further review of Bill 7 that would give the government greater powers to respond quickly in response to economic threats or attacks from the United States.
Some of the powers include eliminating trade barriers.
He described the bill as providing emergency response authority to respond quickly to actions by the United States that would target “BC, our economy and our people”.
“This is a very serious risk,” said Eby, saying that BC has response authority for natural disasters but not for economic threats as “created by the president of the United States”.
BC already has the availability of using the State of Emergency, something that was used during the pandemic. But Attorney General Niki Sharma says broader powers are needed.
“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,” the Attorney General said in a statement to Island Social Trends [see the full statement by Attorney General Niki Sharma, March 28, 2025].
Reviewing the bill:
Eby says he believes his government will “need to act very quickly” in response to whatever may come from the United States.
But he admits that Bill 7 (as first announced on March 13) as currently penned “didn’t get the balance right”.
Eby had to repeat to media several times in his press conference at 10:45 am today from Vancouver that the government needs to work together with industry, business, labour and First Nations.
Government is “pulling Part 4 of Bill 7 to ensure that we get the balance right”, said Eby.
He wants to continue “to ensure that we can respond quickly”. Eby has not exactly specified the sorts of threats he thinks are possible or is anticipating. He has also not articulated how the available framework of State of Emergency could not cover what he thinks BC will need to do in quick response to threats from Trump and his administration.
Democratic and legislative oversight are certainly desired by the BC NDP government, Eby said in various ways.
Further amendments:
The BC Greens — with whom the BC NDP government have an operational agreement to keep the legislature moving forward — applaud removal of Part 4 from the tariff response bill. But the Greens add that further safeguards are needed.
BC Greens Attorney General Critic Rob Botterell, MLA (Saanich North and the Islands) says: “We have been critical of this bill, and have introduced a variety of amendments to the government. Still, we have serious concerns. In the past two weeks the BC Greens fought to strengthen democratic safeguards in Bill 7, ensuring that transparency, accountability, and proper checks and balances are in place.”
The Green says they are committed to working across party lines and have proposed further amendments including legislative oversight.
“This is in addition to Green amendments underway such as shortening the sunset clause to one year, removal of the exemptions regime, and narrowing of delegation powers. We expect to see these amendments, amongst others, included before we can determine whether or not we will support this Bill,” said Botterell in a statement today.
The BC Greens say they are committed to working across party lines and that the NDP has been receptive to their concerns. “The public also needs to weigh in—tariffs affect everyone, not just the legislature,” the Greens stated today.
Critique by Canadian Federation of Independent Business:
The Canadian Federal of Independent Business (CFIB) says they are pleased to see the government recognize that the need for broad emergency powers was unjustified. “During this trade war, we have overwhelmingly heard from small businesses tell us that they need certainty, so it is imperative that government acts in an open and transparent manner,” said CFIB in a statement today.
However, they itemize “significant problems” with the legislation.
- Part 1—dealing with internal trade barriers—retains its sunset clause. Unless this specific sunset clause is stood down, it will be difficult for B.C. to attract long-term investment knowing that domestic free trade is only temporary in B.C.
- “Part 2 allows the Cabinet to issue arbitrary procurement directives while shielding officials from liability. This has the potential for the province to repeat the mistakes it made with Community Benefits Agreements, which increase costs and delays for public projects.
“The B.C. government must deliver certainty for small businesses, lock in internal free trade for the long term and counter the impact of U.S. tariffs in a manner that is open and transparent,” said CFIB today.
Full opposition:
The BC Conservatives describe Bill 7 as “the most egregious overreach”. Today Official Opposition Leader John Rustad says the “recent concession is a step in the right direction” but that it “only scratches the surface”.
The Conservatives consider Bill 7 to be “a dangerous centralization of power”. Rustad states there is the potential misuse of personal data in the “proposed vehicle tariffs”.
Disdain for Trump:
“The president is attacking countries everywhere,” said Eby today, who over recent weeks and months has escalated his clear frustration, disdain and abhorrence of how Trump is handling the powers of the Oval Office.
Today’s press conference was held immediately after Eby participated in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s virtual meeting with Canada’s Premiers. Eby said that Carney reported having had a “positive call with the president”.
But Eby remains “concerned about the long term maintenance of that relationship”. He listed off several Commonwealth countries that he feels Canada should be working together with the respond to the US-initiated crisis: UK, New Zealand and Australia.
Media today:
Premier Eby took at least two members of the BC Legislative Press Gallery to task about their questions, including Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun and Justine Hunter of the Globe and Mail.
===== RELATED:
- Attorney General: Bill 7 will pass more quickly without Part 4 (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)
==== NEWS SECTIONS: CANADA-USA | TARIFFS & TRADE | BC 43rd PARLIAMENT | BC NDP | CANADA-NATIONAL