Deja Vu All Over Again: The Liberal
Government's Restraint Program

Outgoing Premier Bill Bennett (right) with Bill Vander Zalm at the 1986 Social Credit leadership convention. Brian Kent/Vancouver Sun

Since taking power in May 2001, the provincial Liberal government led by Gordon Campbell has introduced a series of measures designed to reduce the size of government and meet the government's objective of balancing the budget by fiscal year 2003-04. Most dramatically, on 17 Jan 2002, the government unveiled plans to chop about 11,700 jobs from the provincial payroll over 3 years and to cut government services by an average of 25% across all provincial ministries. Dozens of government offices will be closed, a variety of programs and services will be eliminated and user fees will be imposed for services that remain. The government also reduced welfare payments, chopped legal aid and closed a number of courthouses. The cuts followed an extensive core services review of all government departments, and occurred against a background of a significant tax decrease, which the government introduced earlier in an attempt to stimulate the sluggish economy.

The announcement of the cutbacks sparked immediate protests from public sector unions, including the province's teachers who, as part of the package of legislation, had a new contract imposed on them. On Saturday, February 23, fourteen anti-government rallies were held across the province during an organized "Day of Protest". In Victoria, at the largest gathering, 20,000 protestors crowded the lawn in front of the legislature. It appears that BC may be heading into another period of unrest reminiscent of the Solidarity campaign against the Social Credit government's restraint program introduced by Premier Bill Bennett in 1983.

What Was Solidarity?

There are surprising similarities between the Campbell government's recent policies and the program introduced by Bill Bennett's Socreds in July 1983. Bennett had succeeded his father, W.A.C. Bennett, as leader of the Social Credit Party in 1973 and was elected premier two years later. Similar to the Liberals in 2001, when Social Credit came to power in 1975 they accused the New Democratic government, which they had replaced, with gross mismanagement of the province's finances and inaugurated a period of fiscal "restraint." (The charges of fiscal irresponsibility turned out to be exaggerated.) Unlike the Liberals in 2001, however, the Socreds did not cut taxes; instead, they raised taxes along with a variety of other fees and charges in order to increase government revenues.

The Bennett Socreds managed to win a narrow election victory in 1979, after which the provincial economy began to decline into severe recession. By 1982 the prices of BC's natural resources had fallen dramatically and, along with them, government revenues from various fees and royalties. At the same time the unemployment rate rose, as did spending on social assistance. The government budgeted a deficit and responded by initiating spending restraints, including a cap on public sector wage increases. Even so, the public was unprepared for the cost-cutting program introduced by Premier Bennett once he had won re-election in May 1983. In July the minister of finance introduced his budget and revealed the extent of the government's austerity plans, chief among them to cut the civil service by 25% and to sell off or shut down a wide variety of government services and agencies. At the same time the government undercut its cost-cutting exercise, at least with critics, by embarking on a series of megaprojects, including SkyTrain in Vancouver, construction of the Coquihalla Highway, the development of coal resources in the Northeast, and Expo 86. So at the same time as the government was cutting social assistance and laying off public servants, it remained committed to funding hugely expensive infrastructure projects as a way of stimulating the economy.

Government plans sparked the largest mobilization of anti-government popular protest in the history of the province. A coalition was mobilized that brought together the labour movement, women's groups, human rights and poverty activists, teachers and tenants. The union movement formed Operation Solidarity, which was part of a wider organization, the Solidarity Coalition, that included all protesting groups. A rally in downtown Vancouver on 23 July 1983 attracted 20,000 people, and that was just the beginning. On 10 Aug, 40,000 people jammed the Empire Stadium. In mid-October more than 50,000 marched through the streets of the city. On 1 Nov, the BC Government Employees' Union went on strike, and a week later most teachers walked off the job. Events seemed to be building toward a massive general strike. However, before that happened, the labour wing of the protest resolved some of its differences with the government. Jack Munro, president of the IWA and vice-president of the BC Federation of Labour, flew to Kelowna on 13 Nov to meet with Premier Bennett. In return for some small concessions to the labour movement from the premier, Munro agreed to call off the strike. This so-called "Kelowna Accord" drew sharp criticism from social activists, who felt it betrayed the protest, but it broke the back of the Solidarity movement and the coalition faded away.

The Bennett government continued its restraint program, and BC continued to experience only marginal economic growth. In 1986, with an election looming, the premier resigned, ending the Bennett era in BC politics. Retrospectively it is generally acknowledged that Bennett's neo-conservative program was a model for similar programs of government downsizing during the 1990s in Ontario and Alberta. Whether Gordon Campbell's program, similar in intent if not in detail, evokes a similar outpouring of popular protest will be seen in the weeks and months ahead.

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