BC Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin wraps 7-year-old stint with ceremony

British Columbia’s Lieutenant Governor leaves office after seven years on the job, with Premier David Eby told her farewell ceremony that her focus on reconciliation with original people was among her most important contribution.

Janet Austin’s work during her employment defense in the province, Eby said the ceremony of the legislature of Victoria on Wednesday.

In her own remarks, Austin said she “deeply honored” to give royal consent to the BC’s declaration of law on the law of indigenous peoples law that passed unanimously in the legislator in late 2019.

“Our challenge now is to help British Columbians understand that reconciliation work is not only a legal and morally imperative, but a strategic investment in a more prosperous, fair and sustainable future for all Canadians,” she said.

The ceremony followed a vicarage galine from the Naden band of the Royal Canadian Navy and the inauguration of a Dogwood tree by the legislator of Austin’s name.

Austin was sworn in as the province’s 30th lieutenant governor in April 2018, and while the position is largely ceremonial, she held the position in significant political moments in the province’s history, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amanda Campbell, Deputy Private Secretary of Lieutenant Governor, noted that Austin’s tenure was a few years longer than the typical five-year period, “and there has been a great deal in the world and in our beautiful province of that time.”

“I would say that the greatest focus of her honor and the work she has really put her heart in has been in her role to further reconcile in the province and elaborate on the relationship between the crown and indigenous peoples,” Campbell said.

Austin helped establish the BC -Safe Prize in 2020.

She told the ceremony that her tenure also coincided with ever more severe fires, wind storms and floods and financial challenges in BC along with “intensifying geopolitical conflicts” and security concerns.

Austin held more than 2,000 formal submissions in the role, was a patron of 108 groups and made the historical transition from being the provincial representative of Queen Elizabeth to King Charles after the Queen’s death in 2022.

Eby announced on Wednesday that the province made a $ 5,000 donation to Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship in gratitude for Austin’s service.

She also received a couple of binoculars and two bird books, as well as a leash and a collar with the official BC Tartan for Mac Duff, her 14-year-old West Highland White Terrier, which had become a staple for her tenure.

Austin told the farewell ceremony that she is “the only Lieutenant Governor who was completely upstormed by her dog,” said Macduff was “far more popular” on social media and among visitors to the Government House, the official residence of the position.

During Wednesday’s ceremony, Eby Austin presented a certificate that declared January 29 to be Vice-Perman Dog Consort Day in BC in honor of Mac Duff.

The premiere also shared an anecdote to donate a special pair of socks on Wednesday, knowing that he would attend the ceremony.

“I’ve got my Macduff vice pre-dog socks on,” he said.

Eby said the socks were in regular view under a fireplace he attended at a mining event, causing him to explain his sartorial choice to those present.

In another moment of Levity, Eby said Austin has not let him forget that he was missing out on a “notorious” Barbie film evening as members of the legislature of all parties were gathered and wore pink in the honor of the Lieutenant Governor.

Austin took over the position of Judith Guichon shortly after John Horgan became prime minister, the first time a new Democracy government was back in power in the province since 2001.

Before he took the job, Austin was CEO of Ywca Metro Vancouver.

LongTime Business Women and Philanthropy Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia has been selected as BC’s 31 Lieutenant Government Governor. She is ready to be sworn in at a ceremony by the Legislature of Victoria on Thursday, who will see trumpeters playing the vicarage salte and the firing of a 15-canon honor.