Eby targets the wrong billionaire in Pattison

NDP Leader David Eby picked a curious target as he took on grocery store billionaires and pursued the promise of a new tax on high-income earners.

Billionaires, especially the US, have established a rather miserable reputation for this income class in recent years. So it is easy to understand that a politician wants to deduct points from them.

But Eby singled out Jimmy Pattison – founder and owner of the Jim Pattison Group, which owns Save-On-Foods – during a tough talk about his new plan to intervene in the food industry to fight profiteering.

Maybe there’s no such thing as a popular billionaire, but Pattison is probably the least offensive billionaire in the country.

Making him the face of a gouging, anti-competitive grocery cabal is an odd choice.

But it was the Prime Minister last week, deliberately standing with a Save-On store as a backdrop, announcing a plan to hijack the profits of big food companies.

He promised a complicated new regulatory scheme to investigate price increases on some staples and hide any increases that cannot be explained.

To make it clear who he was talking about, he concluded with a waspish: “Don’t worry about Save-On-Foods. Don’t worry about Jimmy. He’s going to be OK—he’s going to land on his feet.”

The promised bump on grocery gains is an effort to make up for the fact that Eby’s big campaign promise during the previous election campaign two years ago of a $1000 grocery rebate check to every family in BC disappeared after he won the election.

The push from the second effort to deal with grocery costs is at odds with another constant theme of Eby’s – the continued urge to buy BC wherever possible because of the US trade war with Canada.

Save-On-Foods is one of the great local grocery stores, with over 100 stores in BC It is one of the choices for people trying to avoid patriotic chains that are owned by the United States.

Eby’s Buy BC stance implicitly supports businesses like Save-On. Now he takes a dig at them.

During the same announcement, he also mentioned something that could be in the background of the grocery price issue. Eby referred to Save-On-Foods CEO Jamie Nelson’s meeting to talk about and repeat retail violence.

Nelson succeeds Darrell Jones, who briefly ran for the Conservative Party of BC leadership after years as a TV pitchman for the chain.

Eby said his government has launched programs to counter this road problem. But everyone notices that many retailers have also massively increased private security in recent years.

This costs money, which is reflected in the cash register. (Other costs can’t even be calculated, as the recent vicious attack on a Save-On manager in Victoria shows.)

Eby followed the grocery price guards with a new income tax promise on the weekend – hikes on the top brackets (over $190,000 a year) and a new higher tax rate on people earning over $1 million a year.

Governments generally announce tax increases in budgets between elections. Promoting them in a campaign is a bit unusual.

BC’s overall income tax regime compares favorably with other provinces, particularly at lower income levels.

But the income tax increase comes on top of a new vacant condo tax announced earlier in the campaign.

Promising two tax increases in a single campaign — until now — isn’t in many political playbooks.

Just so you know: Jimmy Pattison is almost as well known for his philanthropy as his business success, if not more so. He made large donations to many hospitals in BC

Eby’s government “re-paced” seven health projects in the February budget (indefinitely postponed the financing or construction contracts).

At least when Pattison promises money for a hospital, he follows through.

Eby announced that contrast Monday by announcing that the seven postponed projects will be restarted, and a new one will be added.

Campaigning in Victoria, he pledged that the long-dormant Oak Bay Lodge rebuild would receive $90 million in funding.

The original reason for the re-pacing was that costs had risen to as much as $1.8 million per bed.

Eby said Monday that “standardization” plans have pushed prices down and made way for the restart.

It looks like the need to get re-elected had something to do with it too.

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