100 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DAVE BARRETT GOVERNMENT (1972-1975)

From 1972 to 1975, the province’s first socialist government, headed by the NDP’s Dave Barrett, changed the face of British Columbia. Their time in office was a frenzy of action and legislation, passing more than 350 bills and taking many other measures, which left a legacy that has helped shape us ever since. With Dave Barrett’s recent passing, some might want to refresh their memories, or learn for the first time, just exactly what his government did – and of course they were hardly perfect. But given Given the cautious, go-slow, poll-driven legislators of today, it is a remarkable record, during a mere 39 months in office. Herewith, taken largely from The Art of the Impossible, the account of the Barrett government by Geoff Meggs and me, is a list of its Top 100 achievements. Amazing.

1. The Agricultural Land Reserve.
2. The Insurance Corp. of BC, which brought publicly-owned auto insurance to the province.
3. A provincial ambulance service, with licensed paramedics.
4. Hansard.
5. Daily question period.
6. Greatly increased funding for opposition parties.
7. Chair of the Public Accounts Committee given to a member of the opposition.
8. Doubling of MLA pay to $25,000 a year.
9. Minimum wage raised from $1.50 to $2.50 an hour, highest in the country.
10. Mincome, providing a guaranteed, minimum income for those over 60, the Barrett government’s single most popular measure.
11. Pharmacare for seniors.
12. Boosting welfare rates 20 to 40 percent. Total spending on human resources went from 8.5 percent to 15.1 percent of the budget.
13. Restoration and sprucing up of the crumbling legislative building.
14. Provincial sheriffs service.
15. Banning use of the strap in public schools.
16. Neighbourhood pubs.
17. Lifting of arbitrary ceiling on teacher wage increases.
18. Ending a ban on beer and liquor and advertising.
19. Buying two pulp mills, two sawmills and Panko Poultry to save them from going out of business. Except for the chicken plant, all subsequently made money.
20. Full collective bargaining rights, including the right to strike, for government employees.
21. The most far-reaching Human Rights Code in Canada.
22. A breath-taking labour code, the most far-reaching in North America, which took picketing disputes out of the courts for the first time and greatly facilitated union organizing.
23. A powerful new Labour Relations Board, with unprecedented jurisdiction over labour matters. It was an outstanding success.
24. First-of-a-kind legislation dealing with strikes in essential services, directing the LRB to determine which services should be maintained during strikes by fire, police and/or health care workers. This allowed employees in these critical areas to strike, but with restrictions.
25. Establishing the Islands Trust to protect the Gulf Islands against uncontrolled development.
26. A government funded art bank to purchase BC art.
27. The BC Energy Commission to regulate private utilities and monitor oil and gas prices.
28. The BC Petroleum Corp., cutting the government in on profit from export sales of natural gas, dubbed “thirty-second socialism” by Attorney General Alex Macdonald.
29. Elected community resources boards.
30. BC Cancer Control Agency.
31. Dramatic expansion of community colleges.
32. Pay toilets canned.
33. Restoration of the right to sue the Crown.
34. BC’s first ministry of housing, charged with encouraging affordable and co-op housing through the government-purchased Dunhill Development.
35. Rent contols.
36. Appointment of a rentalsman to oversee tenant rights.
37. Refurbishing of the Royal Hudson steam locomotive for rail trips between West Vancouver and Squamish.
38. Amalgamation of both Kelowna and Kamloops.
39. Purchase of the Princess Marguerite, to keep the beloved Victoria-Seattle ferry in operation.
40. Purchase of Victoria’s inner harbor waterfront.
41. BC’s first Indigenous school board, run by the Nisga’a Tribal Council.
42. Greatly expanded daycare facilities and increased subsidies.
43. Farm Income Assurance Act.
44. Mandatory kindergarten.
45. Reduced teacher-student ratios.
46. End of province-wide exams for Grade 12 students.
47. Annual federal grant of $700,000 for French immersion restored to the school system.
48. Purchase of 1.1 million BC Tel shares, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure a seat on the board. Later resold for a good profit.
49. Ban on non-union grapes at all government-owned institutions.
50. Union wages mandated for all publicly-funded construction projects.
51. Independent boards of review to decide Workers’ Compensation Board appeals, previously left to the WCB, itself.
52. Improved WCB pensions.
53. New, government-owned manufacturing plant in Squamish to build BC Rail boxcars.
54. Killing proposed Third Crossing between the North Shore and Vancouver and using the savings for expanding public transit.
55. The Seabus (began operation under Social Credit).
56. Cancellation of proposed downtown Vancouver government office tower, resulting in Arthur Erickson-designed Robson Square.
57. Ending logging of Cypress Bowl and preserving it for recreation.
58. An independent board of governors at BC Institute of Technology.
59. A police commission to set policing standards in the province.
60. Legislation requiring elected and appointed officials to disclose their financial holdings.
61. Increased funding for the arts.
62. Expansion of provincial parks from 7.1 to 9.4 million acres.
63. Putting a stop to logging and mining in provincial parks.
64. The BC lottery.
65. Financial aid to enable the City of Vancouver to purchase the historic Orpheum Theatre.
66. Creation of a large provincial park to stall plans by Seattle City Light to flood much of BC’s Skagit Valley by raising the High Ross Dam.
67. BC Day.
68. Full-time human rights officers.
69. A BC Human Rights Commission.
70. Closure of residential Willingdon School for troubled girls and Brannan Lake Industrial Centre for boys, which Barrett considered, amid so much else, his proudest achievements.
71. BC Ferries ship-building.
72. Large increases to legal aid.
73. The province’s first consumer services ministry, and Canada’s strongest consumer protection.
74. Significant financial assistance for an Indigenous fisheries co-op in northwest BC.
75. Legislation allowing BC to establish its own bank.
76. Quashing a proposed bulk-loading coal port for Squamish.
77. Removal of succession duties from farms that pass from parents to their children.
78. Allowing civil service pension funds to invest in stocks..
79. Provisions for handing public complaints against police.
80. Boosting mineral royalties and increasing the governments take from windfall profits resulting from a spike in world metal prices.
81. Burns Lake Development Corporation, giving district Indigenous groups a share in the local forest industry.
82. Provincial Status of Women Office.
83. Hiking corporate taxes from 10 to 12 percent.
84. Higher renters’ grants.
85. Ramping up royalties on coal from 25 cents to $1.50 a ton.
86. Removal of the sales tax on books.
87. Amassing $38.8 million in profits from Crown corporations.
88. Timber Products Stabilization Act, enabling government to regulate the price of wood chips sold by sawmills to pulp mills.
89. Banning the export of raw logs.
90. Assistance for BC industries with a $100-million fund administered by the BC Development Corporation.
91. Community health centres.
92. An air ambulance service.
93. Establishment of Whistler as a resort municipality, the first of its kind in Canada, along with a land freeze and development study.
94. Investment in Kelowna’s Sun Valley Foods.
95. Municipal assessment reform.
96. Abolishing extra billing by doctors.
97. Sexual Sterilization Act
98. Acquisition of Shaughnessy Veterans’ Hospital, later to become BC Children’s Hospital.
99. Funding of women’s shelters, rape relief centres and women’s health collectives.
100. Revamping the province’s family court system.