B.C. Premier David Eby accused the Conservative Party of B.C. of towing the line of U.S. President Donald Trump on tariffs, while Conservatives continued their call for a public inquiry into safe supply. 

"It's acquiescence to Donald Trump," Eby said Thursday (Feb. 20) during question period in the B.C. legislature when responding to Conservative Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew. "We've seen tweets from members saying that all the government has to do is agree with the President and do what he says."

Eby then quoted a Feb. 1 post on X from Heather Maahs, MLA for Chilliwack: "And there we have it. Eby needs to comply. For the greater good!"

Maahs later added to the post that "Comply means patrol the borders. Stop the fentanyl at the borders. We should be doing it anyway!"

Dew had earlier questioned Eby's language around the tariff issue.

"This government has responded to the American tariff threat by wrapping themselves in the flag they once scorned, by implementing a fake hiring freeze after growing the size of government by a third and by rediscovering the economy after driving B.C. to the lowest business confidence and the weakest private sector job growth in Canada," Dew said. 

Dew also questioned government's decision to cancel the $1,000 rebate for 90 per cent of households promised by the B.C. NDP during the election campaign. 

"This Premier seems to be inspired by Marx 91裸聊视频� Groucho Marx, who said: 'Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, well, I have others,'" Dew said. "As they pivot to implementing conservative policies, this NDP government keeps blaming others for their record of failure and broken promises, like their cancelled $1,000 grocery rebate."

Eby responded in part by saying that the Conservatives would cancel a northern transmission line, which he called a major project to grow the provincial economy. 

"The member is simply wrong about B.C.'s economy," Eby said. "We were the fastest growing economy in Canada last year. Foreign direct investment into B.C. is up almost 250 per cent."

Eby added that B.C. also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. B.C.'s unemployment rate currently sits six per cent, third-lowest in the country and below the national average of 6.6 per cent. "We're leading the way in the fight against tariffs with 18 projects worth more than $20 billion for thousands of jobs," Eby said. "We're going to fight Donald Trump's tariffs. We're going to respond by growing our economy, providing opportunity for all Canadians, leading the way forward. We look forward to the Conservatives joining us to fight for the true North, strong and free."

This exchange took place at the very end of question period, which had opened with Conservative 脕91裸聊视频檃:l铆ya Warbus, MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake, calling for a public inquiry into the safe supply program. 

She opened her remarks by noting that last week, she had attended a memorial for her brother, who died one year ago from a lethal overdose.

"He lost his life because this government has not only failed to stop the flow of fentanyl into our communities; they then inflated the market with so-called safe supply or safer supply. Or is it prescribed alternatives?"

She later told MLAs that drugs also claimed a second brother; a niece, who died alone in a tent; and a 13-year-old nephew. Warbus said the boy found a wallet with drugs in it, which he then consumed while his mother slept in the next room.

"He was not an addict," Warbus said. 

She later clarified to reporters outside chambers that her male relations were first cousins.

"I have 35 first cousins. We all grew up in one village, all in close proximity. These are my brothers," she said of her older first cousins. "The outside world might not see it that way, but they are." 

Warbus said she used these personal elements to highlight the over-representation of Indigenous individuals among the victims of the toxic-drug crisis in calling for a new approach.

"There are other countries, who are dealing with this in a different way," she said. "We need to look at them and gather the best solutions and the best people and put all the money into that." 

She also called for greater recognition of those of who died of toxic drugs. 

"We are not alone in this," she said to MLAs. "We know that 16,328 people have died (from toxic drugs since the declaration of a public health emergency in 2016). Do not round the numbers down when you're talking about lives. Sixteen thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight families that will not get their loved ones back, their children, their parents and their spouses. Our children and our youth are our future and they are dying because of this crisis."

Warbus also raised questions about the effectiveness of safe supply, while acknowledging she is not an expert during her remarks to reporters. 

"When I think about the concept of drugs, whether it be in a prescription form, whether it be deemed safe supply or whether it is falling in the hands ... of children, kids in school ... I don't care what kind of drugs it is, that might up in their hands or around them or be given to them when they are out with their friends," said Warbus, a mother of three.

"All of the drugs are going to have the same consequences and the fact is that is not the path that we should be going down."

The government has acknowledged the diversion of currently unknown quantities of safe supply, following the leak of a memo and recently announced changes to tighten its administration. 

"Yesterday we made a decision to make changes to the prescribed alternatives program specifically to prevent diversion, to prevent these medicines from getting into the wrong hands and being used in the wrong way," B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said. "They are intended to be used by the people for whom they are prescribed only. In using this program, we know that people are being better connected to services, being stabilized, finding housing, finding work."

She also acknowledged the impact of drugs on Warbus' family in offering condolences.

"(The) Opposition House Leader is revealing very personal details around the impact on her family," Osborne said. "I want to acknowledge that this crisis has touched Indigenous peoples in particular in a very disproportionate way and that the trauma that Indigenous people have lived with and the difficulty of accessing health care altogether is all part of this and why we have to stay focused on the work that we are doing with everybody, to support them in substance use disorders, in addiction issues, mental health issues, all together."