Top South Island issues addressed in BC’s new ministry mandate letters

Mandate letters to individual BC NDP cabinet ministers were issued late last week, laying out the provincial government’s high-level commitments and policy directions across sectors.

At the top of each letter, Premier David Eby writes the mandate of the provincial government is to “make a tangible difference in [the public's] daily lives” and to make things better for everyone.

The mandate letters mutually reflect an emphasis on “kitchen table” issues, such as growing the economy through job creation and employment security, access to family doctors, and affordable housing.

Reflected in many of the letters is Eby’s concern over US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods and how those would impact individual industries and BC’s economy as a whole. This comes at a time when many industries and individuals are already facing challenges with their business and household bottom lines.

For many ministers, their mandate letter will shed light on ongoing areas of struggle they may have inherited in a post-pandemic economy, but also spotlight potential new opportunities in conjunction with new legislation and support from the province.

From education and health care, to forestry, individual items included in ministerial mandates impact individuals and communities across the CRD differently. We’ve taken the opportunity to focus on some of those impacts.

Housing

There has been no small amount of journalistic ink spilled on the regional housing crisis across the CRD. In Sept. 2023, the ministry issued legislated housing objectives under the Housing Supply Act to municipalities with the aim to increase the number of affordable units in multiple communities on the South Island. Victoria and Saanich appeared on the first-round list of 10 and easily met their quotas. Since then, the municipalities of Oak Bay, Sooke, and View Royal were added. They have each failed to meet their respective targets.

View Royal and Sooke’s requests for extensions to meet their quotas, on the basis of their concerns around the lack of infrastructure to meet those demands, were rejected by the province in December. In July 2024, the province announced View Royal’s target of 585 new homes over five years. In August, View Royal council put out a statement saying “the Town does not predict that any of the (housing) measures will produce any significant impact on the affordability or attainability of housing and without adequate infrastructure and services, it will have a negative impact on livability.”

Sooke council voted 3:3 to not comply with the provincial legislation to meet its housing quota under Bill 44.  In Dec., Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon threatened to step in to force compliance in Oak Bay, View Royal, and Sooke.

Until Kahlon returns to the legislature on Feb. 2, he will likely not make any announcements on the subject.

Minister Kahlon’s mandate includes work with the finance minister to remove barriers to the construction of more small-scale, multi-unit housing. To lend expedience to the initiative, Kahlon is tasked with working across ministries to expedite permits required for new housing construction. That promise may have to include working with the ministry of infrastructure to develop and execute the types of projects that the smaller municipalities argue are required in order for them to meet their housing quotas.

In February, the CRD approved $85M to purchase land for affordable housing. He is also being asked to work with developers to reduce barriers to new home construction in an environment of high labour and construction costs.

Help on the homelessness front may be coming to Victoria

According to the housing ministry’s mandate letter, it looks like help may be on the way for Victoria, which has repeatedly asked the province to step up and support its response to the ongoing—and overlapping— homelessness and opioid crisis. In recent months, the crisis has resulted in new bylaws prohibiting overnight camping in a number of city parks and on thoroughfares. Bylaw officer response in clearing encampments from parks and streets, particularly along Pandora, has generated backlash from members of the unhoused and street-entrenched communities. Kahlon’s mandate includes a call to other ministries to “support local governments affected by encampments with dignified, prompt, and effective interventions to move people living in encampments inside before encampments can become entrenched.”  ‍

Read letter: Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing

Josie Osborne is sworn in. Photo: BC Gov Flickr

Health

Tens of thousands of residents across the CRD still do not have access to a primary care doctor or general practitioner. Last year, two walk-in clinics closed in Victoria, putting a further strain on health services in the area.

A new Westshore Mental Health and Substance Services Hub, designed to help more people in need of mental health and addictions services, launched in Colwood last August. The immediate challenge for that municipality was to find doctors to staff it.

Much reporting has also been done on the ongoing staffing crisis at Victoria General, Saanich Peninsula, and Royal Jubilee hospitals. In 2023, the crisis led to intermittent overnight closures at Saanich Peninsula Hospital and have since led to surgery delays across the board.

The mandate to require professional colleges to recognize the credentials of Canadian health-care workers immediately on confirmation of their good standing in another province or territory may help fill these care and staffing gaps.

Health Minister Josie Osborne’s mandate letter also asks that she support the work of the chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs, and concurrent disorders in delivering high-quality care for people struggling with acquired brain injury, addiction, and mental health issues.

Last July, first responders in Victoria were attacked as they attempted to treat an individual who was known to have an acquired brain injury. Last year, Royal Jubilee hospital was accused of discharging vulnerable patients under less than ideal circumstances due to lack of adequate staffing and care options for people with overlapping addictions and mental-health crises.

The ministry mandate also suggests more resources will be given to bringing addiction health professionals and epidemiologists together “to expand peer-reviewed research to evaluate interventions for people struggling with addiction” and to implement evidence-based best practices. It suggests more work must be done to care for “people seeking mental-health and addiction services on both an inpatient and outpatient basis, including services responsive to the unique needs of Indigenous Peoples.”

In the wake of hundreds of toxic drug-related deaths over the years in the CRD, the mandate extends to the continued expansion of nasal naloxone to respond to overdoses. Last January, 18-year-old UVic student Sidney McIntyre-Starko died of fentanyl poisoning in her dorm room. Her parents have criticized the response from campus security, who waited nine minutes to administer the nasal naloxone they carried. Since then, the education minister created new guidelines for post-secondary schools to enact to avoid future drug poisonings, including better access to naloxone and training on its use.

According to her mandate, Sheila Malcolmson, minister responsible for social development will also be working with law enforcement and social agencies in the province to address “street disorder,” to crack down on organized crime (often relating to the sale and distribution of toxic street drugs), and to ensure repeat offenders stay behind bars.

Read letter: Josie Osborne (Mid-Island Pacific Rim), Minister of Health

SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ elementary school. Photo: ThinkSpace Architects

Education & Childcare

Earlier this month, controversy erupted around what the SD61 Board of Education feels is inappropriate overreach in the insistence of the education minister that the board include a School Police Liaison Officer (SPLO) program in its schools or face dismissal. Rather than implement an SPLO program, the board is calling for more staff and student supports, including hiring more educational assistants and in-school counsellors.

While Minister Lisa Beare’s mandate letter asks her to work to ensure that teachers and schools have access to additional support in the classroom and beyond—including the expansion of education assistants and counselling resources—the ministry’s approach in demanding the integration of SPLOs into regional schools remains heavy handed.

An online search of postings for teachers in public, private, and Catholic schools reveals a number of openings in the region’s elementary schools, but also for much-needed early childhood educators (ECEs).

Residents in the Greater Victoria region and the Westshore continue to struggle with access to affordable daycare. Despite NDP claims of improvement to child-care access, Eby had to amend his childcare funding agreement with the federal government, owing to what it called “diverse implementation challenges.” Those challenges included lack of trained early-childhood educators (ECEs) and before- and after-school care programs.

To meet this particular challenge, the minister will continue to implement ChildCareBC to improve access to accessible, affordable childcare—though additional provisions to reduce access to training are not as clear.

Some relief for parents of school-age students may come in the form of the minister’s mandate to work with Anne Kang, the post-secondary education minister “to expedite the certification and deployment of new and experienced international and domestic teachers.”

In the rapidly growing Westshore, the minister’s mandate to work with the ministry of infrastructure to “accelerate the delivery of new and expanded schools in a cost-effective manner” could address the strain on area schools. Expanded student enrolment across the CRD, particularly in Langford and Sooke, has meant calls for more schools to be built in the region. Langford announced last May that it was getting a new high school and in August, plans for a new middle school to be built on Gateway Road were announced by MLA Ravi Parmar.

The 480-seat SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ elementary school is said to be on track to open in Langford in the fall of 2025. Those schools will all need new teachers.

The ministry’s mandate also includes continuing to work to increase Indigenous graduation rates.

Two years remain in the five-year NA’TSA’MAHT Enhancement Agreement, developed by Sooke School District (SD62) with Indigenous communities, their partners, and the ministry of education. The goal of the agreement was to maintain and enhance collective ownership in order to improve the success of Indigenous students, create safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environments, and provide learning opportunities based on the First Peoples Principles of Learning for all students, staff, and communities.

Read letter: Lisa Beare, Minister of Education and Childcare

Photo: Sidney Coles / Capital Daily

Agriculture & Food

According to the Capital Region food and agricultural initiatives roundtable, Vancouver Island once produced as much as 85% of the Island’s food supply. CRD farmers are known for cultivating a range of products, including field crops, berries, sheep, tree fruits, and poultry and they contribute to a robust organic food sector in vegetables, meat, and dairy. But despite farmers’ efforts, food production on the Island in 2019 amounted only to 10%  of consumption. The drastic reduction in food production is due, in part, to a number of challenges to the agricultural industry—including recent drought years—and to rising land costs in the region.

In terms of increasing local food production, Minister of Agriculture and Food Lana Popham’s mandate to enhance support for the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) by promoting the financial success of farmers and improved access to the sector as a career for aspiring farmers is encouraging. It is also the mandate of the minister of social development to support this work as a means to alleviate food insecurity.

Agricultural land in the CRD is increasingly under threat. Investment in hobby farming and recent municipal considerations of permitting additional housing units, to be built on land identified as part of the Agricultural Land Reserve, are lending to the challenge. A new biological threat to local agriculture is also on the rise—last month, an outbreak of avian flu hit a poultry farm in Saanich.

Additionally, the minister is being called on to ensure that ALR land use restrictions are consistent with the potential and available uses of the actual land and that provision is made to expand food processing in the province to grow our food processing sector.

Farmers in Sooke have been particularly hard hit by attacks on their livestock by cougars. The minister's letter, announcing that it has been mandated to help “grow the profitability and success of our agricultural sector,” is vague when it comes to addressing both agricultural land reduction and predation of livestock, tilting as it does towards meetings and discussions rather than more policy oriented solutions.

Read letter: Lana Popham (Saanich South), Minister of Agriculture and Food

Jobs & Innovation

The South Island is gaining a reputation for growth and innovation in tech and tech-related industries. In a May 2024 investment blog post quoted Ross Marshall, senior vice-president of the Investment Properties Group at CBRE Ltd. in Victoria, saying “ Tech is now the No. 1 economic driver [in Victoria.” In the piece he goes on to say “Tech supersedes tourism, and because Victoria is such a great place to live… those companies are looking to relocate and/or exploring expansion within this market.”

According to the Victoria Innovation, Advanced Technology & Entrepreneurship Council (VIATEC) Victoria is home to upwards of 500 active tech companies representing about 15% of the BC sector. Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Diana Gibson’s mandate to support BC’s innovation, tech, life sciences, AI, and other emerging sectors seems a direct response to the region’s emergence as a tech leader. That growth is also happening in the Indigenous community.

Last January, the Malahat First Nation announced it was set to host the first Indigenous-led gigafactory. The Nation held a groundbreaking ceremony for the site in August.

See Victoria Tech Journal for twice-weekly news from the sector such as MarineLabs' collaboration with Canada’s Ocean’s Super Cluster to monitor under sea seismic activity off the coast of the Island.

In other business, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce announced, last year, the New to Canada program to empower and support newcomer business owners as they grow their businesses in the Greater Victoria Region. The minister’s mandate to support small- and medium-sized businesses to innovate, grow, and access global markets will be a welcome complement to that initiative though, again, the language of “how” remains somewhat vague.

Read letter: Diana Gibson (Oak Bay-Gordon Head), Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation

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Fairy Creek watershed. File photo: Jimmy Thomson
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Forests\

One of the most storied stands of old growth is next door to new forestry minister Ravi Parmar's Langford home.

In 2021, Fairy Creek became the scene of the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Following more than 1,100 arrests, and at the request of Pacheedaht First Nation, the BC government deferred just over 1,180 hectares of Fairy Creek old-growth forest from logging . In December 2024, an agreement was reached between the BC Greens and the NDP in partnership with the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations that represented a significant move to protect the Fairy Creek Watershed near Port Renfrew.

Parmar’s mandate to bring industry, First Nations, and communities together at forest landscape planning tables will be an important next step as the Feb. 1 deadline in the deferral in old growth harvesting in the area rapidly approaches.

To add to the existing softwood lumber tariffs, the price crisis in the timber sector, there has been grave concern in the lumber industry about the threat of American tariffs under the new Trump administration, which officially began this week.

Read letter: Ravi Parmar (Langford-Juan de Fuca), Minister of Forests

Ravi Parmar is sworn in. Photo: BC Gov Flickr
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Social Development\

As people throughout the CRD continue to struggle to pay for housing and nutritional food, Minister of Social Development Sheila Malcolmson's mandate is urgent. Her mandate to ensure poverty reduction programs are “relevant, efficient, and ensure safe and strong communities” is essential, regardless of where, in the CRD, you call home. In the context of current provincial budget constraints, the minister’s mandate is even more relevant for young families and elderly people who are looking for continued access to the kinds of social programs and services that keep them engaged, safe, and thriving.

According to the United Way Southern Vancouver Island, more families are on the edge of poverty than ever. In the midst of the housing crisis and the rising cost of living, it is especially important that elders and members of the disabled community receive the benefits they are eligible for, including OAS, GIS, and the Canada Disability Benefit. It is the minister’s mandate to ensure that they do.

Even with those benefits in hand, individuals living with disabilities are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Monthly provincial disability assistance payments stand at $1,483.50, while the poverty line in Victoria is $2,249—leaving a monthly income gap of roughly $900. Meaning, the minister will have to do far better than maintain the status quo.

Read letter: Sheila Malcolmson, Minister of Social Development

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Additional cabinet members and their mandate letters\

Niki Sharma, Attorney General and Deputy Premier

Brittny Anderson, Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities

Jodie Wickens, Minister of Children and Family Development

George Chow, Minister of Citizen’s Services

Kelly Greene, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness

Adrian Dix, Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions and Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs

Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks

Brenda Bailey, Minister of Finance

Christine Boyle, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation

Bowinn Ma, Minister of Infrastructure

Rick Glumac, Minister of State for Trade

Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Labour

Jagrup Brar, Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals

Anne Kang, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills

Garry Begg, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General

Terry Yung, Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services

Spencer Chandra Herbert, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport

Mike Farnworth, Minister of Transportation and Transit

Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship

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