Vaughn Palmer: What Kerry-Lynne Findlay would do as premier of B.C.

B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay meets with media at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver on June 2, 2026 Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10111772A

Article content

VICTORIA — Two months into her leadership of the B.C. Conservatives, Kerry-Lynne Findlay has begun laying out her program, starting with her first priorities if she should take office as premier.

Article content

“I would like to do a core review of our fiscal situation, because the last NDP budget was what I call a no-hope budget,” Findlay told Black Press last week.

Article content

Article content

“We are in debt. It was presented with a deficit, and we’ve had a downgrading of our credit rating since the budget. We need … to get out of that as quickly as possible.”

Article content

Article content

Findlay emphasized that she has stuck with Kamloops MLA Peter Milobar as the party’s finance critic despite their unhappy clash over his wife and another family member having paid positions with the local Indigenous band.

Article content

Article content

“I never said anything about his wife’s heritage or her Indigenous ethnicity,” she told reporter Lauren Collins. “He and I had a private conversation about the controversy … and we are on good terms with each other.”

Article content

A newly elected Premier Findlay would act early to repeal DRIPA, the enabling legislation for the commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Article content

She also plans to mount a stronger defence of the land-titles system governing fee-simple (private) property in B.C.

Article content

The impetus arises out of her reading of last year’s B.C. Supreme Court decision recognizing Aboriginal title for the Cowichan Nation over a tract of public and private land in Richmond.

Article content

“When I was travelling around the province during the campaign, it was evident that it (land title) was the number-one issue in most people’s minds. What is their tenure on the land? What does private property entail? What’s going to happen to my equity?

Article content

Article content

“What the judge emphasized in the Cowichan decision is that neither the federal government nor the provincial government presented any argument whatsoever on the supremacy of our land-title system,” said Findlay. “There are assurances within that legislation that when you hold title to a piece of property, you are the only one with that title — meaning whatever equity is in that property is exclusively yours.

Article content

Article content

“It is the government of the day that picks the litigation team, that instructs them what to argue and what not to argue. I believe with a different government, a different approach, we’ll start to see a difference in court outcomes.”

Article content

Perhaps. Although hers would not be the first B.C. government to run afoul of the courts on Aboriginal rights and title.

Article content

Yet the issue has worked well for the Conservatives, even as Premier David Eby’s fumbling undermined support for him and his government. I expect the Conservatives will continue to exploit the situation when the legislature convenes Oct. 5.

Article content

But Findlay first needs to secure a seat in the house.

Article content

“I would love to be across the aisle from Premier Eby,” she told Black Press. “It is my intention to lead my team in debate and show that we are a government in waiting and ready to take on the NDP in the next general election.”