The Premier says he has no doubt that he will be able to fulfil his election promise of a one-time pandemic response benefit to British Columbians.
The benefit would see eligible people getting a cheque for either $500 or $1,000 – depending on their financial and family status. John Horgan had originally said cheques would go out by Christmas but he’s now saying it will depend on if the legislation passes before then.
“Whether the cheques get out to families and individuals before Christmas is a factor that will involve administrative issues that I can’t predict, but it will certainly be in the not too distant future,” he said.
Horgan says if the cheques aren’t sent out by December, it will be out by very early January.
“I don’t know of any obstacles at the administrative level. The obstacle would be can we get the legislation passed? We have a majority, I’m confident we can do that,” Horgan added. “We’ll have a full debate and I can’t speak for the official opposition. I can’t speak for the Green caucus.
“Legislation will be prepared. We will pass it, but we will have the debate the our legislation and any legislation quite frankly deserves.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Kamloops-South Thompson MLA says a brief sitting of the Legislature is “probably not” enough time to discuss a massive COVID relief package from the Horgan government.
“John Horgan would’ve been better off to have kept us in session a bit longer over the summer, or into the late part of summer or September or even October, if he was really focused on wanting to get these cheques out to British Columbians,” Stone told NL News. “His COVID bribery cheques.”
“If he wanted to get those out, he certainly could’ve done so by recalling the Legislature and not calling an election. At the end of the day, it’s the Premier and the Premier only who sets the schedule. He sets the agenda, he determines how much time we actually devote to the Legislative responsibilities we have as MLAs.”
The BC Legislature will resume in a week from now, on Dec. 7, and passing legislation to allow that benefit to go out the door is expected to be the top priority. Stone says a week is probably not enough time to debate the legislation.
“I maintain that the John Horgan government should not have called an election this fall,” Stone added. “It’s almost tremendous coincidence that almost to the day following the conclusion of this election there’s a tremendous spike in the number of new COVID cases each day.”