What do Terry Fox, Holocaust remembrance and Liberal efforts to reduce red tape have in common?

All will soon have their own honorary day in B.C.

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The Liberal government has introduced legislation to celebrate the reduction of red tape by creating a Red Tape Reduction Day with a new Red Tape Reduction Day Act.

The day and legislation, if passed, will join Red Tape Awareness Week and newly minted Red Tape Reduction Minister Coralee Oakes in the Liberals’ ongoing fight against unnecessary bureaucracy.

Opposition MLAs slammed the bill Thursday, calling it “absurd,” “shameful” and nothing more than “a political stunt.”

NDP MLA Adrian Dix noted that it’s only the sixth time in the province’s history that a government has used legislation to create a special day.

Red Tape Reduction Day, if approved, will join Terry Fox Day, Holocaust Memorial Day, B.C. Day, Douglas Day and Family Day.

Dix said the government devalues those other days by trying to trick the NDP into voting against reducing red tape for small businesses.

“What they’re saying is: ‘Our political interests are at the same level as B.C. Day and Terry Fox Day,’ ” he said. “Now we have ‘Save the Liberal base’ day.”

George Heyman went further.

“It is shameful that we are putting business, red tape reduction, on the same basis as Holocaust memorial,” he said. “I say that as the child of Holocaust survivors. It is shameful.”

Liberal MLA Naomi Yamamoto defended the bill, saying the Red Tape Reduction Day Act “demonstrates government’s commitment to reduce the red-tape burden imposed on citizens and small businesses.”

The act achieves this, she said, because it “will impose on government a requirement to host an annual day devoted to red-tape reduction on the first Wednesday of March of each year.”

Victoria-Beacon Hill NDP MLA Carole James mocked the Liberals’ circular logic. She said there was “more than a little bit of irony” in a government creating a new law and more red tape in order to celebrate cutting it.

She said the Liberals could simply proclaim a day, as it does dozens of times throughout the year, without the need for a new bill and hours of debate in the legislature.

B.C. Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver added that he was “flabbergasted” that politicians even have to waste time on an such an “absurd” debate.

“When I put this on my Facebook page, I had no idea,” he said. “I put it out as a joke. It’s not a joke.”

The Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA said he was inundated with comments from British Columbians angered by “stupidity” of the bill.

One person said it was “stranger than a Monty Python skit” while another likened it to a Simpsons episode.

“ ‘The only thing missing was Mayor Quimby in his sash,’ ” Weaver said, quoting from a message.

“While they’re at it, can you ask them to make an official silly walks day?” said another.

Weaver said he plans to bring forward a motion to move the day to April 1.

“I mean, this is not even a serious bill,” he said. “The taxpayer of British Columbia should be astonished that we are wasting their money, their time, to debate this.”

lkines@timescolonist.com