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By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Billion-dollar Royal B.C. Museum project a sumptuous political feast for Falcon

May 20, 2022 | 10:31 AM

RARELY HAS A POLITICIAN been given as opulent, as generous and useful a political gift as Kevin Falcon was given this week from his magnanimous opponent, Premier John Horgan.

Just in time for his return to the B.C. Legislature, Horgan gave Falcon a shiny new nail to hammer over and over and over again, in the form of the redevelopment of the Royal B.C. Museum.

If you’re not familiar with this institution, you’re not alone.

It sits in Victoria, right across the street from the legislature precinct itself, meaning the majority of the province has to take a ferry just to find it.

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It’s a wonderful and important institution filled with everything you could possibly ask for in order to experience this province’s history from a settler’s point of view.

Politically, this issue has absolutely everything, too, but for the B.C. Liberals, it all revolves around the price tag.

It’s $789 million dollars. That’s more than 20 times the annual budget of the entire Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions — for one project that hundreds of thousands of British Columbians will never get a chance to experience.

When you factor a plan to move the provincial archives off site, the price tag tops $1 billion.

The business case for the project will be spelled out at a news conference next week, and it will be very interesting to see the math here.

Beyond the exorbitant price tag, though, there are other components to this project that will play into Falcon’s hand.

The Royal B.C. Museum is not infrastructure in the traditional sense, so it’s easy to question its utility – especially since very few of us have ever personally darkened its door.

It’s located in Victoria, a city unlikely to vote B.C. Liberal anytime soon, so Falcon can dump on it without fear of legitimate blowback.

Horgan’s own riding is right next door, so the Liberals can call it a vanity project and pin it to him personally, playing into a tried-and-true political smear strategy.

The timing plays against Horgan, too, with the skyrocketing cost of everything making this expense look even more frivolous.

It all adds up to a sumptuous feast of political goodies for Kevin Falcon, a welcome back he could have scarcely imagined when he won the party’s leadership earlier this spring.

Premier Horgan has been on easy street politically since he took power in 2017. Kevin Falcon will use the Royal B.C. Museum project to give him a much rougher road.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.