Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Conservative MLA Trevor Halford: Michael Bryant’s Secretive $325,000 DTES Deal Is a Slap in the Face to British Columbians

Michael Bryant


Surrey–White Rock MLA Trevor Halford is demanding answers from the Premier and the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction after the Official Opposition obtained Michael Bryant’s full Downtown Eastside contract (attached), revealing a deal worth up to $325,000, significantly more than what was publicly disclosed last week.

“This contract reads like a political favour, not a public service,” said Halford. “And we know it came straight through the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, the same ministry responsible for supporting the most vulnerable people in the Downtown Eastside.”

The contract grants:

  • Up to $300,000 in compensation
  • A $25,000 expense account
  • Taxpayer-covered travel for any trips outside a 32-kilometre radius from Vancouver


It instructs Bryant to develop a “framework” for coordinating services in the DTES, but explicitly acknowledges the plan may not succeed. To date, no public reporting benchmarks have been disclosed or met.

“This government is handing a quarter-million-dollar cheque to one of the Premier’s friends for a plan it openly admits might not work,” said Halford. “There are no public deliverables, no transparency, and no justification for why this appointment wasn’t disclosed.”

Bryant’s previous role as CEO of Legal Aid BC ended abruptly in 2024. To date, neither the Premier, the Attorney General, nor Bryant himself have addressed the concerns surrounding his sudden departure. It is understood that Premier Eby was consulted by the Legal Aid BC board during Bryant’s appointment process, a role Bryant later left without any public explanation. He was then brought into a new, taxpayer-funded role at the direction of the Premier, through the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

Now, that same individual has been tasked with overseeing services that directly impact Indigenous residents, vulnerable women, and survivors of trauma.

“To make it worse, he’s working out of the Overdose Prevention Society, one of the very nonprofits he may be evaluating,” said Halford. “This is a textbook conflict of interest, and the Premier is pretending it doesn’t exist.”

“David Eby says the Downtown Eastside is the reason he got into politics,” Halford added. “If that’s true, this contract is more than just a failure of judgment, it’s a betrayal of his own legacy.”


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nurses Take Job Action After Years of NDP Neglect

Image Credit:  BC Nurses Union BC nurses have reached a breaking point after years of unsafe conditions, rising violence in the workplace and a government that wouldn’t listen. Now they are on the picket line fighting to be heard. Last week, nurses began job action with a 72-hour strike notice, refusing non-essential overtime and stepping back from non-nursing duties. As of Tuesday, they have escalated to picket lines for the first time in decades. This moment was avoidable. It is the result of years of unanswered concerns from the frontline workers who keep our hospitals running. Nurses have been raising the same concerns for years: unsafe staffing levels, rising violence on the job, and a workload no single person should have to carry. None of it is new, and none of it should have taken a strike vote to get the government's attention. "Nurses are exercising their legal right to job action, but it shouldn’t have had to come to this," said Kiel Giddens, MLA for...
Post a Comment
Read more

British Columbians Still Don’t Know Who’s Paying for NDP’s BC Hydro Deal

The NDP is making billion-dollar promises with BC Hydro, but British Columbians still don’t know who will pay the bill. Last week’s memorandum of understanding isn’t what the federal government and the NDP are making it out to be. It’s an admission that the NDP failed to make the long-term investments needed to keep B.C. powered. Now British Columbians have serious questions about the cost and whether BC Hydro ratepayers will end up paying the price. David L. Williams, MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap and Shadow Minister for BC Hydro and Electrical Energy Development , said British Columbians deserve clear answers about the full implications of the Canada–British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement. “British Columbians deserve the full truth,” said Mr. Williams. “This multi-billion-dollar announcement does not answer who pays for cost overruns, who pays for new generation, who carries the risk if industrial customers do not materialize, or whether ratepayers will be forced ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NDP Government Blames Everyone but Themselves

The federal government has announced new measures to support British Columbia's forestry sector, including $65 million in funding for projects across the province. While any support is welcome, it falls far short of the level of assistance other provinces have secured for key industries. Conservative Forests Critic Ward Stamer says the NDP government needs to take responsibility for its mismanagement of B.C.’s forest industry instead of trying to pass on the blame. Despite promising to create more jobs in the forest sector, the NDP government has overseen the loss of thousands of forestry jobs and 21 mill closures which have devastated communities. “If Premier Eby spent more time addressing the regulatory issues impacting the forestry sector than he did complaining about the federal government, we would not be in the position we are now,” said Stamer. “And instead of trying to place the blame for mill closures on Donald Trump, Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar should t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more