Good morning.

Premier David Eby’s new cabinet was sworn in Monday, a day shy of a month since the election barely returned the NDP to government. To reflect his election priorities of health care, housing, affordability and public safety, he tapped a combination of relatively new faces and tested veterans.

Ravi Kahlon drove the dizzying array of changes in the government’s housing policy introduced after Mr. Eby took over the leadership of the NDP when former premier John Horgan resigned. He will remain as Housing Minister in the new government.

Niki Sharma remains in her previous portfolio of Attorney-General.

But longtime health minister Adrian Dix has been replaced by Josie Osborne, a former mayor of Tofino who has previously held the cabinet portfolios of municipal affairs and water, land and resources stewardship.

Mr. Dix has moved to the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions. He had been health minister since the NDP formed government in 2017.

Garry Begg, a backbencher whose 21-seat victory in Surrey-Guildford was critical to securing the NDP’s majority, was elevated to Minister of Public Safety. He was introduced by the Premier as “Landslide Garry.” Mr. Begg was a longtime RCMP officer and backbencher who was first elected in 2017.

Vancouver-area MLA Brenda Bailey, who previously served as jobs minister, has been elevated to Finance Minister.

The NDP won 47 seats in the Oct. 19 election to the Conservatives’ 44 and the Greens’ two.

The results obliterated the NDP’s 27-seat majority won in the 2020 election. Now, the Premier has vowed to readjust his mandate to focus on a short list of basic but massive challenges. Mr. Eby said Monday the focus will be on bringing down costs for families, strengthening health care, making communities safer and growing the economy so everyone feels the benefits.

“These are big challenges and tackling them all will take time,” Mr. Eby said Monday.

As Justine Hunter writes, Ms. Bailey, as Minister of Finance, will be expected to figure out how to implement the NDP’s chief campaign promise on affordability, which is to hand out what they call a grocery rebate to most households in the spring. It’s a measure that is estimated to cost $1.8-billion.

The rebate calls for $500 payouts for individuals or $1,000 for households. All but 10 per cent of British Columbians – individuals earning more than $125,000 – will receive a cheque, and the benefit will morph into a tax cut in subsequent years.

Ordinarily, a budget item of that magnitude should be approved by the legislature. But given the tight seat count in the legislature and the fact that a Speaker has yet to be appointed, Mr. Eby has elected to avoid a sitting this fall. That would mean British Columbians would have to wait until the 2025 budget is passed, and the millions of payments would then have to be processed. That route would see the cheques delivered in late spring at best, and Mr. Eby has not said if he will wait that long.

His new Finance Minister can expect a briefing book filled with a suite of options for how the rebate can be introduced. The fastest way would likely be a regulatory cabinet order, which would shave months off the delivery time.

The rebate cost will be added to this year’s record-breaking deficit budget, which has prompted a credit downgrade from one bond-rating agency, and a warning from another. A third agency has sounded the alarm about the costly promises set out in the recent election campaign.

Ms. Bailey’s predecessor in finance had declined to indicate any plans to bring the budget back into balance – the NDP are currently running a $9-billion deficit – but the NDP had repeatedly said now is not the time to make the hard choices needed to balance the books.

Ms. Osborne in Health will face her own conundrum straightaway.

On her first day on the job, the tension around the opioid crisis was already demanding her attention, after doctors in two major Vancouver Island hospitals opened unsanctioned overdose prevention sites.

Security guards employed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority dismantled the tents twice at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital Monday morning before the volunteers set up on a city boulevard across the street. The doctors say their protest is in response to more than a year of waiting for the authority to deliver on a commitment to offer overdose prevention services on site for hospital patients suffering withdrawal.

Ms. Osborne said she hasn’t had enough time to respond to the sites.

This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.