One of the many laudable initiatives in Premier Horgan’s mandate letters to his cabinet ministers is his government-wide effort to “tackle systemic discrimination in all its forms—and every ministry has a role in this work.” 

Even a cursory look at who comprises his new 25-person cabinet and his 11 parliamentary secretaries confirms that he’s way ahead of his predecessors in reflecting that promise of diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

His cabinet team is gender-balanced and certainly embraces the rich multicultural diversity of his 57-MLA caucus. 

Plus, Horgan plans to promote Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan from deputy speaker to speaker of the legislature—a historic win for B.C.’s south Asian community that saw a record-high nine NDP MLAs elected.

Yet, look a little closer at who really holds the most power—from key cabinet committees, to the top civil servants—and a different reality emerges.

One that suggests too little progress has been made over Horgan’s first 3 ½ years in power in promoting worthy elected and nonelected officials from racialized communities to the top jobs in government.

“Delivering on our commitments to address racial discrimination will require a commitment by all of government to ensure increased IBPOC (Indigenous, Black and People of Colour) representation within the public service, including in government appointments,” the premier stressed to his ministers.

As the minister responsible for the public service agency, Horgan’s new finance minister Selina Robinson was also directed to advance this specific priority:

“With support from the Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism [Rachna Singh], lead efforts to support increased IBPOC (Indigenous, Black and People of Colour) representation within government and set targets for IBPOC representation in the public sector.”

Apparently, the premier’s new top deputy, Lori Wanamaker, somehow didn’t get that memo. 

Which is hard to fathom, considering she probably had a lead role in crafting it on Horgan’s behalf, along with all of the ministers’ mandate letters.

What’s wrong with this picture? 

It would appear that Horgan and his top lieutenant forgot to adjust the white balance, as it were, in practising what they preach.

Those images suggest that of the 32 deputy ministers who now serve on Wanamaker’s also perfectly gender-balanced deputy ministers’ council, precious few are persons of colour.

Not exactly an A-effort in reducing the institutionalized discrimination that has mostly prevented persons of colour from being fairly promoted within B.C.’s civil service.

Which is not intended in any way as a knock against any of the outstanding public servants who now serve as part of that august group.

Indeed, I worked with many of those individuals in years gone by and can attest to their incredible dedication, professional smarts and competence, and overall merit. 

Still, I have to wonder: given that all deputy ministers are order-in-council appointees who serve “at the pleasure” of the Crown/premier, why isn’t the deputy ministers’ council more ethnically diverse?

I mean, Horgan has had nearly a full term to make progress on his longstanding equity imperative. 

What progress has been made within his own ranks, aside from his government’s deservedly proud achievements in advancing gender equity?

Surely there are lots of suitable deputy candidates to choose from within B.C.’s accomplished public service and even from the private sector who would better project better cultural equity balance. 

Perhaps it’s something that Robinson and Rachna Singh might want to explore, as part of their review.

A good start might be more transparent regular public reporting on that progress as it applies to the senior civil service—directors, assistant deputy ministers, associate and full deputies alike.

Yet, Horgan’s own cabinet appointments also raise questions about his commitment to walking the walk that he commendably talks.

It’s a concern that U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is also hearing in no uncertain terms from under-represented groups of racialized voters.

USA Today recently reported that about half of Biden’s announced cabinet positions have gone to people of colour, and three of his nine top White House will be filled by people of Latin American heritage. 

Yet, despite that fact, the pressure is on for him to do more. As the president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation put it, “We need to be… at his decision-making table. And the diversity needs to be reflected from the top, the Cabinet itself. Who is running the agencies? All of that matters.”

"After you pop the champagne and all the high fives…you need to make sure you have all those groups around the table,’’ said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

No doubt, Horgan has sure embraced that ethic far better than any of his predecessors ever did. But the closer one looks at his inner circle, the more tentative or even cosmetic his commitment to fundamentally addressing B.C.’s age-old white-power hegemony seems to be.

Fact is, with two exceptions, far as I'm aware, Horgan’s top political advisers and staffers are pretty much all lily-white, from his chief of staff, Geoff Meggs, and his top special adviser, Bob Dewar, on-down.

It’s also telling to see who Horgan appointed to his cabinet committees and working groups. 

His eminent inner ministerial circle is blindingly white, despite the broader cultural balance that his total cabinet surely displays.

In large measure, that’s because he is properly concerned with building on his administration’s brand, which in a word, has to date been “competence”.

From the outset, he and his chief of staff, Geoff Meggs, have been keen to smartly recognize outstanding performance and to safely reward experience—particularly those with strong union ties.

Nowhere is that more evident than in who Horgan has appointed to serve on what most insiders recognize as the most important cabinet committees: treasury board; planning and priorities; and likely, the cabinet working group on COVID.

Horgan personally chairs the latter two, which should tell you something.

But as the chart below shows ministers sit on both treasury board and “P&P”. They are all super capable, no doubt, yet none of them are from racialized communities.

A more accurate picture of Horgan’s chief power players suggests that apart from Ravi Kahlon, who is clearly one of his most influential ministers, most of the ministers from the East Asian and South Asian communities have been relegated to either junior minister of state positions, or assigned to fewer and typically less influential cabinet committees.

The appointments order committee, for instance, is hardly in the same league as treasury board or P&P, in terms of its influence on policy. 

Neither is the environment and land use committee, which rarely sits, in past practice.

And truth be known, neither are the “second tier” of cabinet committee heavy hitters—a fact that is betrayed by their relative sheer size and degree of backbench MLA representation.

I found it especially odd at whom Horgan appointed to the legislative review committee, which in my experience was one of the most critically important if under-appreciated cabinet committees.

That committee is charged with carefully scrutinizing every draft bill that government plans to introduce. That's to identify and address and wording flaws and policy issues before they prove problematic. 

I would have imagined that Attorney General David Eby would have been the natural choice to chair that committee, which will be well-served by Murray Rankin’s presence and razor-sharp legal mind. 

It’s great that former minister Jinny Sims will serve as the deputy chair of that committee; but why does it not include anyone from the East Asian community—also missing from P&P and from environment and land use? 

The bottom line is, the premier himself might want to think about how it looks when his key cabinet committees and top public servants are not as diverse as one might expect from the top dog in government.

Again, I don’t mean to in any way denigrate the hugely important roles that all of his cabinet team have been given, or to question the competence of any of the ministers or deputy ministers who should all be deservedly proud of their status.

I merely wanted to suggest that much more can and should be done—forthwith, I’d suggest—to help advance the goal that Horgan has prioritized in making British Columbia a more equitable, inclusive, and racially sensitive leader in Canada.

Appendix 1

Cabinet ministers: 

Anne Kang, minister of advanced education and skills training

Lana Popham, minister of agriculture, food and fisheries

Lisa Beare, minister of citizens’ services

Mitzi Dean, minister of children and family development

Katrina Chen, minister of state for child care

Jennifer Whiteside, minister of education

Bruce Ralston, minister of energy, mines and low-carbon innovation

George Heyman, minister of environment and minister responsible for TransLink

Selina Robinson, minister of finance

Katrine Conroy, minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development

Nathan Cullen, minister of state for lands and natural resource operations

Adrian Dix, minister of health

Murray Rankin, minister of indigenous relations and reconciliation

Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs, economic recovery and innovation

George Chow, minister of state for trade

Harry Bains, minister of labour

Sheila Malcolmson, minister of mental health and addictions

Josie Osborne, minister of municipal affairs

Mike Farnworth, minister of public safety and solicitor general, minister responsible for ICBC

Nicholas Simons, minister of social development and poverty reduction

Melanie Mark, minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport

Rob Fleming, minister of transportation and infrastructure

Bowinn Ma, minister of state for infrastructure

David Eby, attorney general and minister responsible for housing

Cabinet Committees and Working Groups:

Treasury Board – TB

Honourable Selina Robinson (Chair)
Honourable George Heyman (Vice Chair)
Honourable Katrine Conroy
Honourable Mitzi Dean
Honourable Adrian Dix
Honourable David Eby
Honourable Bowinn Ma
Honourable Bruce Ralston
Honourable Jennifer Whiteside
MLAs: Brenda Bailey, Bob D’Eith, Niki Sharma

Planning and Priorities Committee – PPC

Premier John Horgan (Chair)
Honourable Ravi Kahlon (Vice Chair)
Honourable Katrine Conroy
Honourable Adrian Dix
Honourable David Eby
Honourable Rob Fleming
Honourable George Heyman
Honourable Melanie Mark
Honourable Josie Osborne
Honourable Selina Robinson
Honourable Jennifer Whiteside

Cabinet Working Group on COVID – COVID

Premier John Horgan (Chair)
Honourable Harry Bains
Honourable Katrina Chen
Honourable Adrian Dix
Honourable Mike Farnworth
Honourable Melanie Mark
Honourable Selina Robinson
Honourable Jennifer Whiteside
MLA: Harwinder Sandhu

Legislative Review Committee – LR

Honourable Mike Farnworth (Chair)
Jinny Sims, MLA (Vice Chair)
Honourable Lisa Beare
Honourable Murray Rankin
MLAs: Brittny Anderson, Megan Dykeman

Cabinet Committee on Economy – CCE

Honourable Ravi Kahlon (Chair)
Honourable Lana Popham (Vice Chair)
Honourable Harry Bains
Honourable Lisa Beare
Honourable George Chow
Honourable Katrine Conroy
Honourable Nathan Cullen
Honourable Rob Fleming
Honourable George Heyman
Honourable Anne Kang
Honourable Bowinn Ma
Honourable Melanie Mark
Honourable Bruce Ralston
Honourable Murray Rankin
Honourable Selina Robinson
MLA: Pam Alexis

Cabinet Committee on Social Initiatives - CCSI

Honourable Mitzi Dean (Chair)
Honourable Nicholas Simons (Vice Chair)
Honourable Harry Bains
Honourable Katrina Chen
Honourable Adrian Dix
Honourable David Eby
Honourable Mike Farnworth
Honourable Sheila Malcolmson
Honourable Josie Osborne
Honourable Murray Rankin
Honourable Jennifer Whiteside
MLA: Aman Singh

Cabinet Working Group on Mental Health, Addictions and Homelessness - MHAH

Honourable David Eby (Chair)
Honourable Sheila Malcolmson (Vice Chair)
Honourable Mitzi Dean
Honourable Adrian Dix
Honourable Nicholas Simons
MLAs: Spencer Chandra Herbert, Susie Chant, Mable Elmore, Aman Singh

Environment and Land Use Committee – ELUC

Honourable Nathan Cullen (Chair)
Honourable Murray Rankin (Vice Chair)
Honourable Katrine Conroy
Honourable Rob Fleming
Honourable George Heyman
Honourable Lana Popham

Appointment Orders Committee

Honourable Anne Kang (Chair)
Dan Coulter, MLA (Vice Chair)
Honourable George Chow
Honourable Ravi Kahlon
MLA: Michele Babchuk