New Kelowna–Mission MLA lays into David Eby, says BC NDP 'either too lazy or too afraid' to face BC Conservatives

New Kelowna–Mission MLA Gavin Dew has said Premier David Eby’s government is “either too lazy or too afraid” to face scrutiny in the Legislative Assembly.

The Conservative Party of BC’s critic for jobs, economic development and innovation echoed his leader’s demand that representatives sit “as soon as possible.”

The legislature is not due to convene again until February, despite what Dew calls “crucial, crisis-level issues” in the province that need to be addressed immediately.

“I think that they have a serious, serious issue in terms of weak leadership, weak cabinet, weak caucus, and they're afraid to get into Question Period,” Dew told KelownaNow video host Jim Csek on Tuesday.

Dew said Eby is “curled up in a ball hiding under his desk in his office and just not doing anything.” He added that the premier “is going to try to govern with a very, very weak bench of ministers” which will “make our job easier because we'll be running circles around these folks.”

Eby, meanwhile, has praised his new cabinet, emphasizing that it “reflects our province’s diversity, experience and talent.”

The premier has said his priorities will be affordability, health care, public safety and homebuilding.

Dew, though, said he would be focusing most on the need to grow BC’s private sector, which has remained relatively static in recent years despite public sector growth.

“Everybody knows that we need to have a social safety net,” he said.

“Everybody knows we need government and government workers, but we cannot sustain this rate of growth where we have a bigger and bigger government perched on the back of an anemic economy that's not growing and not creating jobs that support people and families.”

He also discussed what he branded the BC NDP’s “sledgehammer approach” to short-term rentals which, he claimed, has “contributed to killing our tourism sector.”

Dew pointed out that one of Eby’s own candidates in Kelowna, Loyal Wooldridge, challenged his party over short-term rentals during the election.

Eby, however, previously told KelownaNow the rules were “working,” adding: “I’ve met a lot of people who are staying and living long term at what used to be short-term rentals.”

In his interview, Dew also discussed:

• How BC ought to react to Donald Trump’s threat of a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods

• That BC has “made it easy” for drug gangs to operate in the province

• Whether Eby’s “fragile” government will succeed in lasting “years” rather than “months”

• How BC is losing talented young people to, for example, Alberta, because of the latter’s “can-do attitude”

He also briefly addressed concerns raised during the election that some of his party’s candidates – many now MLAs – had been “dodging” the media.

“I think that's definitely something that's coming,” he said, referring to his colleagues speaking to the press more often.

“I know that a lot of our folks are going through the process of media training, becoming more comfortable as communicators, getting up to speed on all of their files.”

He added: “It's also really important that folks get to know the entirety of our team. We've got a really, really strong team of critics, and I think that people are going to be very impressed.”