There’s a mandatory annual disclosure under British Columbia’s Public Sector Employers Act known as the sunshine list because it requires “complete transparency and full accountability” for compensation paid to the five highest-ranking or highest-paid executives with decision-making authority in each public sector organization.
When Vancouver journalist Bob Mackin reported on the list late this summer, it wasn’t the dollar figures, gobsmacking enough, that caught my attention – it was who was on it.
Scanning the sunshine list, you’d be hard-pressed to find people of colour in positions of power, certainly nowhere near reflective of B.C.’s visible minority population of 30 per cent. This is despite promises from the public sector that they would “conduct a review of mid-level to senior-level positions and make recommendations to address under-representation of specified equity groups.” In core government, known as the BC Public Service, people of colour are nowhere to be seen on the executive list.
Power brokers. Decision makers. All hand-picked by the B.C. NDP. And not one visible minority.
Talk about a dramatic incongruity with the NDP’s promised land of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). More than a philosophy, in their own words, the NDP government’s mandate is to ensure the B.C. Public Service is “reflective of our province … and honours its own diverse population.” Colour me confused, but it appears the NDP has woke-washed us.
Of the 33 deputy staff, comprising the top bureaucratic leaders, only three appear to be people of colour and none are among the most powerful, despite this government selling us on the belief they are dedicated to “creating an organization where our employees are treated equitably.”
In fact, those are the words of the person who tops the list. Shannon Salter, head of public service and deputy to Premier David Eby who was compensated $401,460 in the last fiscal year as compared to Premier David Eby’s $227,111.
Rounding out the rest of the executive:
Stephen Brown, Deputy Minister of Health: $375,706.
Heather Wood, Deputy Minister of Finance: $369,151.
Barbara Carmichael, Deputy Attorney General: $350,118.
Matthew Graham Smith, Premier’s Chief of Staff: $263,841.
Eby’s other impact players – director of communication, press secretary, and senior advisor – also do not appear to be persons of colour. Their total compensation in the last fiscal year was $407,525.
Meanwhile, salaries for B.C.’s 38,000 public servants start at $52,000.
While I find the premise of race-based hiring cringeworthy – an opinion shared by many who prefer to succeed on merit and know how such policies backfire and cause harm – many supporters buy the NDP’s commitment to EDI.
It’s a farce.
While the official webpage of B.C.’s Public Service screams in bold, “Equity, Diversity & Inclusion,” the NDP’s actual strategy tells the real story. It’s titled: “Where We all Belong: Diversity & Inclusion.” Equity is entirely overlooked. There is no equal opportunity, no level playing field. The social democratic government gets away with a smattering of visible minorities in less-pivotal ministerial roles, relegating others to subordinate positions and then making a show of it.
Tokenism.
But this is nothing new. A lack of diversity has dogged the party at least since they assumed power in 2017. By 2018, they implemented diversity training for political staff.
When the election rolled around in 2020, the NDP’s internal diversity committee wrote an email about “white leadership” and lack of “racialized” voices among party ranks. They stated they had spoken with B.C.’s NDP about a “need for IBPoC members in positions of power and inner circles.” That was four years ago. Nothing has changed.
Premier John Horgan said, “Our government has a moral and ethical responsibility to tackle systemic discrimination in all its forms – and every ministry has a role in this work.”
It’s all lip service. The NDP hasn’t even tried.
Premier Horgan’s most contrived effort occurred in 2020 when his government capitalized on heightened race relations in the USA. They glommed onto America’s new term, BIPoC – Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour – even though it didn’t align with B.C.’s political and cultural reality. The NDP later rearranged the acronym to IBPoC to respect Indigenous peoples.
Today, the sunshine list shows EDI in the executive ranks of B.C.’s public sector remains a fiction.
As the provincial election campaign rages, “racialized” New Democrats, like Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon and Richmond-Queensborough MLA Aman Singh, spin facts and squawk on social media that the Conservative Party of B.C. plays “Trump-style politics“– meaning, too white.
Um … can we discuss the NDP’s dirty family secret?
The party’s own policies discriminate by reducing people to their skin color and gender – a divisive issue within their own group – and their entire ‘woke’ premise is a fallacy sold to the mob to win votes. The NDP’s record speaks for itself.
The party adopted an equity mandate in 2011 requiring its retiring male MLAs be replaced by a female or someone belonging to other “equity seeking” groups. Yet in 2020, the party ignored an Indigenous woman’s nomination application in favour of supporting a white man in a northern riding. In 2021, the NDP disqualified a South-Asian woman from the leadership race, claiming that the candidate had engaged in “improper co-ordination with third-party environmental groups and fraudulent memberships.” This made way for Eby to be declared leader. However, some political experts have referred to the win as “tainted.” And, in 2022, a Jewish minister felt pushed to resign from cabinet following her political position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
All women. All belonging to diverse groups. All duped by the NDP.
So, while the righteous left flogs identity politics, fuels race wars, and force-feeds EDI on everyone – mounting evidence proves they are disingenuous and hypocritical with their own agenda.
Sunshine lists don’t lie.
Renu Bakshi is a former long-time journalist who now works as an international crisis manager, leadership coach and media trainer. She has guided executives from Google, Aston Martin, and Estée Lauder.
National Post