For most political parties, holding 77 out of 79 seats in the B.C.legislature would be enough. Not for Premier Gordon Campbell and theLiberals. The government is on a campaign to centralize power in Victoriaand remove independent authority from local governments.

Two small but important legislative changes symbolize the government’sgrowing distrust of local communities. The first strips local government inthe Kootenays of control over the Columbia Basin Trust. The second — the“right to fish farm” act — gives the provincial government authority tooverride local government concerns in the creation of new fish farms on thecoast.

The Columbia Basin Trust was created in 1995 by the NDP government andfinanced by downstream benefits from the Columbia River Treaty. The trust iscontrolled by Kootenay residents to enhance community development in theregion.

In partnership with Columbia Power, a Crown corporation, the Columbia BasinTrust bought the Brilliant dam from Cominco and began planning three majorexpansion projects: the Arrow Lakes generating station, the Brilliant damexpansion and the Waneta dam expansion.

The Arrow Lakes project began producing power in early 2002. The BrilliantDam expansion — once derided by the Liberals — is under construction. And the trust has supported economic development projects and enhancedregional autonomy and pride. It has been an economic success story.

Until this month, 10 members of the Columbia Basin Trust board of directorswere appointed directly and independently by local regional districts andtwo by the Ktunaxa-Kinbasket Tribal Council. Six members were appointed bythe provincial government. This was intended to give local decision-makersfirm control over the direction of the trust.

The government is changing this. Now, it will directly appoint six membersto the CBT board and choose the other six from lists of names provided bythe regional districts and tribal council.

Who was calling for this change? Who in the Kootenays, or anywhere else,wanted to strip local Kootenay communities of their appointment power andhand it over to the premier’s patronage staff?

The accountants made me do it, claims Energy Minister Richard Neufeld. Hesays the changes will ensure “that auditors continue to include government’sinvestment in the trust in government’s summary accounts.”

The government is arguing that without complete control of the board ofdirectors an auditor might — one day — view the province’s contribution tothe trust as a grant, and not an investment.

But there would be no difference to the taxpayers, no increased costs —simply a change in the way the asset is reported in the government books. Inshort, the excuse for stripping the region of direct control of its trust isthat one day the trust might make Finance Minister Gary Collins look bad.

This is a shabby pretext for takeover control of a successful publicenterprise that is truly controlled locally. Direct local control ensuresthat the assets in the Columbia Basin Trust will never be subject toprivatization. Until now, the government could not do to the trust what itis doing to B.C. Rail — privatize its assets and strip the “heartlands” ofjobs and a vital tool for regional control and economic development.

The “right to fish farm” legislation, rammed through in October in spite ofa unanimous resolution from the Union of B.C. Municipalities conventionasking that the bill be withdrawn, is the other centralizing bill passedin this fall’s session.

Agriculture Minister John van Dongen claims the legislation is merely “aclarification.” He suggests that the legislation merely enables the cabinetto overturn municipal bylaws on behalf of the aquaculture industry. Nothingin the law guarantees that the government would take such an action.

This is the government that lifted the moratorium on the creation of newfish farms. This is the minister who gave information about a governmentinvestigation into the escape of 30,000 Atlantic Canada salmon from a fishfarm to the company. MLAs have received tens of thousands of dollars inpolitical donations from the aquaculture industry. Local governments know that when it comes down to it, the government willchoose its industry friends over local interests every time.

And now, bylegislative fiat, the government has given itself the power to do just that.

It was not supposed to be this way. In the Liberal New Era document, theparty promised to “pass a Community Charter to outlaw provincial government’offloading’ of costs onto municipal governments, and to give localgovernment greater autonomy and better planning tools to reduce pressure onproperty taxes.”The premier promised to pass the charter in his first 90 days in office.Instead, the proposal was bogged down in process, then watered down andpassed last March.

Then, on November 3, the government introduced the Significant ProjectsStreamlining Act, giving the province broad powers to override localdecision-making on major projects. The premier who was to be the “best friend of local government” has moved tooverride local control, download costs, increase provincial fees by a recordamount, and slash services in communities. Local government has been left topick up the pieces.