This column has given credit where credit is due to B.C. Attorney General David Eby. Faced with billion-dollar deficits at the Insurance Corp. of B.C., Eby has capped 鈥減ain and suffering鈥� awards and moved minor injuries out of court to administrative hearings.
Naturally, the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. is in an effort to prevent the loss of the hugely increased income its members have extracted from ICBC, partly due to aggressive U.S.-style personal injury tactics adopted by B.C. lawyers.
The association鈥檚 lawsuit notes that the average ICBC 鈥減ain and suffering鈥� payout for 2016 was $16,499, which is 鈥渁lmost exactly three times the cap鈥� legislated by the B.C. NDP government. Now $5,500 is all you can get, and ICBC is back on its way to solvency after a $1 billion bailout from B.C. taxpayers that was included in this year鈥檚 B.C. budget.
The election of Jason Kenney as Alberta premier highlights another one of Eby鈥檚 legal adventures, one that isn鈥檛 going so well.
B.C. now has lawyers working on two separate Alberta cases. One is arguing that B.C. should be able to regulate petroleum shipments from Alberta (diluted bitumen), and the other suggests that Alberta should not be able to restrict shipments of petroleum to B.C. (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel).
Outgoing NDP premier Rachel Notley passed the 鈥渢urn off the taps鈥� law but didn鈥檛 enact it. Eby rushed his team into court to argue that it鈥檚 an unconstitutional infringement on trade, but alas, their case was tossed out.
Come back when there鈥檚 an actual law in place, Eby was told. With Kenney in the Alberta premier鈥檚 office, that will be soon, and B.C. pump prices will likely be headed towards $2 a litre. In 2018, the original Trans Mountain pipeline shipped more than half its volume as crude to Washington state refineries, with smaller shares to the Burnaby refinery and Westridge terminal for export. The smallest share of pipeline space is refined fuels to B.C., and it鈥檚 a safe bet that will get smaller. B.C. may have to buy jet fuel from Asia.
As taxpayers absorbed that billing, B.C.鈥檚 bid for jurisdiction over heavy crude shipments from Alberta carries on. It鈥檚 a 鈥渞eference case,鈥� basically asking the B.C. Court of Appeal for advice rather than a ruling.
It鈥檚 a pathetic little show for anti-pipeline voters, according to Notley, and she鈥檚 polite about it compared to Kenney.
Now comes the threat of legal action by a group of social services agencies, whose union employees are getting raises three times as big as their non-union workers. In some cases this happens within the same contracted agency, running care facilities for developmentally disabled children and adults.
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The B.C. CEO Network, a Prince George-based group representing more than 120 of these agencies, has served Finance Minister Carole James with that if this sweetheart deal with the B.C. Government Employees鈥� Union and other NDP-friendly unions isn鈥檛 fixed, they will go to court.
In a statement released with their lawyer鈥檚 letter, the B.C. CEO Network board notes that 17,000 employees are affected. The network represents union, non-union and partially union agencies, which report their wage payments through the Community Social Services Employers Association every year.
Premier John Horgan claimed the 鈥渓ow wage redress鈥� money was withheld from non-union employees because their bosses might keep it without a union contract to set pay. Eby鈥檚 might need more lawyers to defend that statement.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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