By Corey Fischer

MLA Foster Says 2018 Will Be Interesting For BC Politics

Dec 28, 2017 | 7:56 AM

The Liberal MLA for Vernon Monashee doesn’t have a lot of positive things to say about the NDP government since they took over in June — but he does give them credit for proceeding with the Site C Dam.

Eric Foster says retaining those 2-thousand jobs has an impact locally, with 30 jobs held by people in his riding.

“Those are high-paying family supporting jobs. You know they’re running anywhere from 80 to 100 thousand dollars a year. Thirty of them, you take those out of our local economy that’s a tremendous amount of money.”

Foster admits it’s a lot more difficult to talk to cabinet ministers about issues in his riding, now that his party isn’t in power.

The Liberals are looking forward to February when they will choose their new leader.

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Foster says it will allow the members to start planning for the future.

“When you have your permanent lead in place it shows a direction. People understand where you’re going, who the leader is.then you go from there. Looking forward to it in February.”

Foster is remaining neutral on who he wants to win because of his party role as the whip.

Meanwhile, he doubts there will be a break-up of the NDP-Green coalition government in 2018.

Foster says Green Party leader Andrew Weaver has no reason to change the current situation with Premier John Horgan.

I would be surprised if they did because, you know the Greens hold the power, people say the balance of power. They hold the power right now. This provinces policies are being dictated pretty much by one person.”

Foster says while Weaver and the two other Green Party members didn’t get their way on the Site C Dam, they do hold considerable sway with the NDP.

The future of ICBC is expected to be a big focus of the BC government in 2018.

Eric Foster isn’t sure what the NDP will do, other than study it.

He says there’s talk of changing to a no-fault system.

“There are other provinces that do it and it looks good on the bottom line, but not so good for the folks that actually do get injured and so on.”

The government is looking at ways to cut costs after the corporation lost close to half a billion dollars last year.

by Corey Fischer