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VICTORIA — British Columbia’s lieutenant-governor is leaving office after seven years on the job, with Premier David Eby telling her farewell ceremony that her focus on reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples was among her key contributions.
Janet Austin’s work during her tenure advanced reconciliation in the province, Eby told the ceremony at the legislature in Victoria on Wednesday.
In her own remarks, Austin said she was “deeply honoured” to provide royal assent for B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which passed unanimously in the legislature in late 2019.
“Our challenge now is to help British Columbians understand that the work of reconciliation is not only a legal and moral imperative, but a strategic investment in a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future for all Canadians,” she said.
The ceremony followed a viceregal salute by the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy and the dedication of a dogwood tree at the legislature in Austin’s name.
Austin was sworn in as the province’s 30th lieutenant-governor in April 2018, and while her position was largely ceremonial, she held the post during significant political moments in the province’s history including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amanda Campbell, deputy private secretary to the lieutenant-governor, noted that Austin’s was a couple of years longer than the typical five-year term, “and quite a lot has happened in the world and in our beautiful province in that time.”
“I would say Her Honour’s greatest focus and the work that she’s really put her heart into has been in her role to further reconciliation in the province and to deepen the relationship between the Crown and Indigenous Peoples,” Campbell said.
Austin helped establish the B.C. Reconciliation Award in 2020.
Austin told the ceremony that her tenure also coincided with increasingly severe wildfires, wind storms and flooding, and economic challenges in B.C., along with “intensifying geopolitical conflicts” and security concerns.
Austin made more than 2,000 formal speeches in the role, was a patron to 108 groups and made the historical transition from being the provincial representative of Queen Elizabeth to King Charles following the queen’s death in 2022.
Eby announced Wednesday that the province was making a $5,000 donation to the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Journalism Fellowship in gratitude for Austin’s service.
She also received a pair of binoculars and two birdwatching books, as well as a leash and a collar featuring the official B.C. tartan for MacDuff, her 14-year-old West Highland white terrier, who had become a staple of her tenure.
Austin told the farewell ceremony she is “the only lieutenant-governor totally upstaged by her dog,” saying MacDuff was “way more popular” on social media and among visitors to Government House, the official residence of the position.
During Wednesday’s ceremony, Eby presented Austin with a certificate declaring Jan. 29 to be Vice-Regal Canine Consort Day in B.C. in honour of MacDuff.
The premier also shared an anecdote about donning a special pair of socks on Wednesday, knowing that he would be attending the ceremony.
“I’ve got my MacDuff Vice-Regal Canine socks on,” he said.
Eby said the socks were in plain view during a fireside chat he participated in at a mining event, prompting him to explain his sartorial choice to those in attendance.
In another moment of levity, Eby said Austin has not let him forget that he missed a “notorious” Barbie movie night when members of the legislature from all parties gathered and wore pink in the lieutenant-governor’s honour.
Austin took over the position from Judith Guichon shortly after John Horgan became premier, the first time a New Democrat government had been back in power in the province since 2001.
Before taking the job, Austin was chief executive of the YWCA Metro Vancouver.
Longtime businesswoman and philanthropist Wendy Cocchia will be sworn in as B.C.’s 31st lieutenant-governor in a ceremony at the legislature in Victoria that will see trumpeters play the viceregal salute and the firing of a 15-gun salute.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.
Marcy Nicholson, The Canadian Press
