Government Advocacy

BC LEGISLATIVE WIRE

Road to Victoria

A new year and a new majority government

It’s 2021! Many people feel that the number 21 is a lucky number, so we hope this luck translates to a strong economic recovery and a smooth and successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program in 2021. We head into the new year with a new vaccine. While the second wave of COVID-19 is devastating, it’s something for which we’re hopefully more prepared.

Because of our engagement with the BC NDP minority government over the last three and half years, the New Car Dealers Association is well positioned to work with the new John Horgan majority government. After the 2020 election, Horgan’s new government caucus has 57 MLAs: 34 are re-elected incumbents and 23 are completely new to the job as MLAs. Over the last three years, most of the returning MLAs attended our annual ride and drive days at the BC Legislature, and a number also attended the Vancouver International Auto Show at some point.

To position his government for the next four years, Premier Horgan announced his new provincial cabinet in November. There are new roles and responsibilities for the 24 ministers and 13 parliamentary secretaries, which are spelled out in their ministerial mandate letters. Premier Horgan outlined the following work in each mandate letter:

• putting people first;

• reconciliation and responsibility;

• equity and anti-racism;

• climate change solutions; and,

• an economy that works for everyone.

Over the years, the NCDA has built a solid working relationship with many of the key cabinet ministers within the government, including Hon. Bruce Ralston, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation; Hon. George Heyman, Minister of Environment; Hon. Mike Farnsworth, Minister of Public Safety; and Hon. David Eby, the Attorney General. In fact, the most important new appointment of interest to NCDA members is Minister of Finance, Hon. Selina Robinson. The NCDA had a terrific working relationship with previous finance minister, Carole James, and we look forward to building a relationship with Selina Robinson.

When Premier Horgan leads his new BC NDP team of MLAs to the legislature with their new mandate on March 1, 2021, all of his new cabinet ministers and staff will have their hands full with managing the rollout and the economic recovery of the pandemic.

They will also be implementing the new majority government’s vast number of new initiatives. The Throne Speech is slated for Monday, April 12 and the provincial budget will be released on Tuesday, April 20.

From the association’s point of view, we will continue to strongly advocate that the province limit any increases in taxes or regulatory measures that affect businesses, so we can effectively recover from the pandemic. Specifically, we will continue to work with government on consumer incentives for new vehicles, including the CleanBC Go Electric program, the SCRAP-IT Program and the ICBC incentive for autos that have manufactured enhanced braking systems.

As well, we will continue to advocate raising the threshold for the luxury tax to a more appropriate level (following years of no adjustments, the average price of a vehicle today is close to the $55,000 luxury tax threshold now) and have this tax removed from work trucks, with the ultimate goal of the elimination of the luxury tax on vehicles altogether.

In fact, after presenting on this very issue to the 2020 Select Standing Committee of Finance and Government Services last spring, we were encouraged when the committee recommended in its final report to the Ministry of Finance that the government “review the luxury tax threshold for vehicles to eliminate its application on pick-up trucks and essential work vehicles.”

This was a very strong recommendation and we are hopeful we might see some movement on this issue in the coming months, especially as government looks to stimulate economic recovery. Now that all the BC NDP government MLAs and cabinet ministers have been sworn in, we are developing opportunities to engage with the new government on our members’ issues.

Please stay tuned as this year will be an action-packed year! As always, we will be proactively engaging with the newly elected government MLAs around the tremendous benefits that our close to 400 members provide across all 87 ridings.