New Minister at CSCD, responsible for UBC oversight

A small provincial cabinet shuffle occurred this morning, installing a new minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development (CSCD). CSCD is the provincial ministry that is supposed to provide oversight on governance and land development at UBC and in the UEL. The key words there being supposed to – in practice these areas are treated like neglected children. Peter Fassbender, a Surrey MLA, will now be at the helm.

Here’s an updated brief history of who’s been in charge of UBC oversight:

• April 29, 2010 – The Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act (No. 3) transfers the oversight of UBC’s local governance from Metro Vancouver to the BC ministry of Community and Rural Development (CRD). The minister responsible at the time was East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett.
• June 2010 – Blair Lekstrom left the BC Liberal caucus over the handling of the HST, resulting in a mini cabinet shuffle that installed Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart as the new minister of CRD.
• October 25, 2010 -A cabinet reorganization created the Ministry of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development (CSCD), under which oversight of UBC falls. The new minister was Surrey-Panorama MLA Stephanie Cadieux.
• March 14, 2011 – Christy Clark took over as BC Liberal leader and the cabinet changed once again. Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Ida Chong was the new minister of CSCD.
• September 5, 2012 – Another cabinet shuffle results in Bill Bennett as minister of CSCD, his second time overseeing UBC and UEL lands.
• June 10, 2013 – The BC Liberals are re-elected in a May 2013 general election. A new post-election cabinet is formulated which includes Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes at CSCD. She visits campus occasionally to announce tennis tournaments.
• July 30, 2015 – A small cabinet shuffle moves Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Peter Fassbender from Education to CSCD. Speculation is that this change is about rebuilding relations with Translink after the provincial government’s extremely ill-considered transit referendum.

The even shorter summary of 5 years of UBC oversight by the provincial government:

Metro Vancouver –> Bill Bennett –> Ben Stewart –> Stephanie Cadieux –> Ida Chong –> Bill Bennett –> Coralee Oakes –> Peter Fassbender

While Oakes’s tenure at the top of CSCD was shockingly long at over 2 years, the portfolio is still averaging more than a minister per year since UBC was given quasi-independence on matters of land development, independence which has been used to claim that the students are not people, and to have property developers to write their own regulations.