When Prime Minister David Eby is sworn in to his new cabinet on Monday, new ministers will not receive the usual mandate letters.

Instead, they will need to know their portfolios and priorities this Christmas more generally, as the NDP and Greens try to reach a power-sharing deal.

The Prime Minister intends to keep his mandate letters until January. On Monday, ministers will instead receive “nomination letters” that repeat, for everyone, the same priority issues of the cost of living, housing affordability, healthcare and economic growth (this are, more or less, the same priorities of the last mandate). letters too).

In most cabinet reshuffles, ministers withdraw from their appointment by giving specific orders from the prime minister in the form of letters.

For example, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon’s last mandate letter asked him to establish the BC Builds program for middle-income housing, create a rental housing acquisition fund, legalize secondary suites in province-wide, to create a reversible tax, accelerate the obtaining of development permits and create public transportation. density zones, among others. And, to Kahlon’s credit, he accomplished almost all of this in the little time he had.

So, appointing a new cabinet without giving it mandate letters is unusual. But we live in unusual times.

The NDP’s slim majority, won by 22 votes in Surrey-Guildford, means the premier still hopes to strike a deal with the BC Greens to help provide additional stability and cushion for his government.

Negotiations have been going on for more than two weeks. The Prime Minister seems to want to delay the drafting of mandate letters in order to be able, in January, to include the Greens’ priorities in ministers’ orders.

“We’ve had good conversations with the Greens and I hope we can find a way forward,” Eby said on Wednesday.

“Our goal is to ensure that the work that British Columbians sent us to do can be accomplished in a stable Parliament that will operate for the four years that people sent us here to do. I don’t think people will mobilize for new elections. I think they want us to get to work on this.

A deal with the Greens would also allow the NDP to reappoint Raj Chouhan as speaker, without having to worry that Chouhan would break tie votes in the House.

However, there is no agreement yet with the Greens.

It’s a risk for Eby to forgo cabinet mandate letters in some priority ministries for two months, when he recognizes that voters have sent him a clear message to get to work, as quickly as possible , to make visible progress in key areas.

Yet this risk is somewhat mitigated by the on-the-ground realities of those who take the portfolios. If the Prime Minister appoints you Minister of Health and you don’t rush to control emergency room closures and recruit more doctors and nurses, without being specifically asked in a letter, then you probably don’t deserve not to be Minister of Health anyway. Ditto for the Minister of Finance and cost of living assistance.

The Greens, meanwhile, have seen their negotiating position diminish since October 19, when preliminary results seemed to point to an NDP minority government that would definitely need both Green MPs to pass legislation.

Once the NDP toppled Surrey-Guildford in the recount and reached the 47-seat majority threshold, the Greens became a sought-after, but optional, dance partner.

It’s hard to imagine the Greens agreeing to a four-year parliament, as Eby suggested on Wednesday. Why would the Greens trust the NDP again, after it tore up the 2017 confidence and supply agreement a year earlier and plunged the province into early elections?

Leader Sonia Furstenau is not speaking – she has declined several interview requests in recent weeks – and shed no light on the issue in a recent statement.

“We are in ongoing discussions with the NDP, focused on achieving B.C.’s Green priorities and shared goals that meet the needs of British Columbians,” the Greens said. “We are actively working on an agreement, the terms of which have not yet been finalized.”

Ultimately, changing the mandate letter is not a big deal. It would be much more worrying if the British Columbia government tried to manipulate the letters by keeping them secret, like in Ontario.

But the change is a sign that Eby is doing things differently this time, after having his wings clipped, as he put it, by a reduced majority in the election.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering BC politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national best-selling book A question of trustweekly podcast host Political capitaland a regular guest on CBC Radio.

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