With the B.C. NDP projecting a record, growing deficit of $11.6 billion, the opposition says the government is tone deaf in its spending choices. “At a time that we’re supposed to be having a hiring freeze, at a time that were supposed to be seeing potential cutbacks to the workforce, the premier’s office, as long as it suits the premier’s needs, seems to spend money,” said B.C. Conservative finance critic, Peter Milobar. The NDP say it’s taking steps to tighten its financial belt – it has reduced the public service by 850 staff – and more cuts are likely coming, but the opposition B.C. Conservatives discovered the government has hired a stand-up comedian and writer, Charles Demers, to help the premier write speeches. He’s being paid $165 dollars an hour – and his current contract allows him potentially to make a maximum of $300,000 over four years. “There’s nothing funny about it – it’s the ultimate David Eby friends and insiders move,” said Milobar Tuesday. The premier’s office currently has six communications staff on salary, and acknowledges Demers has been paid nearly $100,000 in the past three years. On Tuesday, Eby defended the spending, noting Demers has only been paid $14,000 so far this year. “Today, for example, I’m delivering five speeches,” he said at an unrelated press conference. “I’d love to be able to write my own speeches like I used to, but I do need support to be able to respond to each event.” “Any time a politician starts trying to justify the spending using ‘only’ as a qualifier, you know they got caught out,” said Milobar. Demers himself responded to the controversy with a post on his Instagram account Tuesday, noting he doesn’t just write jokes for Eby, but rather entire speeches. “David Eby’s not the first premier of British Columbia that I’ve written for. I wrote for John Horgan, although for John Horgan I did only write jokes,” Demers noted. The attention on this contract comes as workers with BCGEU continue to strike seeking higher wages, and questions swirl about when the NDP plans to balance the budget – a source of concern from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. “The government kind of is saying on the one hand, ‘we’re going to balance the budget,’ but then the numbers tell a different story. And the different story is higher spending as far as the eye can see,” said David Van Hemmen, the VP of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. The president of the striking BCGEU workers, Paul Finch, weighed in on the matter Tuesday. Finch wrote of his support for Demers on the social media site X, “Our strike is about getting fair wages for all civil servants in B.C., not unfairly attacking individuals. Charles is not just a comedian but an accomplished writer and public intellectual – well qualified for this role. This isn’t where criticism is due.”
