Tag: British Columbia

News

HST: Recall campaign against MLAs to begin Jan. 1

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date September 20, 2010

“Recalling any MLAs may prove more difficult than the petition campaign, which required the volunteers to collect signatures from 10 per cent of registered voters in each of the province’s 85 ridings.

While that was hard enough, for the recall campaign the volunteers will have to start from scratch again and collect signatures from 40 per cent of eligible voters in the riding of each MLA they are targeting. ” – CBC News

Read the full story from CBC news here

To find out what is involved in the Recall and Initiative Act, click on this link which will take you to the Act – available through BC Laws .

To read more about Bill Vander Zalm, take a look at Bill Vanderzalm: “for the people”: hindsight – insight – foresight: the autobiography of British Columbia’s 28th Premier available at Koerner Library.

Tags British Columbia, HST

News

Legislative Committee assembles to discuss anti-HST petition

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date September 8, 2010

Read the CBC article here

The Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives is composed of the following MLAs:

Terry Lake (convener), Liberal, Kamloops-North Thompson

Eric Foster, Liberal, Vernon-Monashee

Dave S. Hayer, Liberal, Surrey-Tynehead

Richard T. Lee, Liberal, Burnaby North

Pat Pimm, Liberal, Peace River North

John Slater, Liberal, Boundary-Similkameen

Katrine Conroy, NDP, Kootenay West

Mike Farnworth, NDP, Port Coquitlam

Rob Fleming, NDP, Victoria-Swan Lake

Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

The proceedings of the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives will be streamed live to the Internet.

At 12:45 PM today, a link will appear on this page to the Webcast of the proceedings:

http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/webcasts/

In addition, the archive Webcast and transcript of the proceedings will be linked on this page:

http://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/39thparl/session-2/legis/index.htm

Tags BC History, British Columbia, HST

News

Green Energy Advisory Task Force Report Released

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date April 30, 2010

The BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum released the Green Energy Advisory Task Force Report on Wednesday. The province also passed the Clean Energy Act (Bill 17) on the same day. According to the BC News Release the Act builds on a number of recommendations from the task force, including:

Confirming our commitment to the Heritage Contract, to ensure B.C. ratepayers continue to receive the benefits of B.C.’s low-cost electricity assets.
Moving forward on critical infrastructure projects such as Site C and the Mica and Revelstoke upgrades.
Increasing B.C.’s clean energy supply to meet domestic and future export demand.
Better align implementation of policy between BC Hydro and BCUC and review the need for a separate transmission corporation.

Enabling utilities to implement initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or improve energy efficiency, such as encouraging installation of high-efficiency heating systems like heat pumps or vehicle electrification and charging infrastructure.
Creating a First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund to support revenue sharing opportunities and to increase First Nations participation in clean energy resource development.

For another opinion read the article What Voters weren’t told about the Clean Energy Act from the Tyee.

Tags British Columbia, energy, environment, legislative

News

BC Government keeps funding for shelters

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date April 16, 2010

The BC Liberal Government has agreed to keep the funding for 3 of Vancouver’s emergency shelters:

New Fountain Shelter (51B Cordova St.) – 28 beds, Portland Hotel Society
Central Shelter (240 Northern St.) – 100 beds, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
First United Church (320 Hastings St.) – 200 spaces, First United Church of Canada.

Read the story from the Globe and Mail here

Read the BC News Release here

The City of Vancouver just finished it’s Homelessness Count last month. Figures have been released; however, the full report hasn’t been released yet on the City of Vancouver site but archived years are available.

Tags British Columbia, Current Events

News

Debate heats up in the Legislature over salaries after release of Comptroller General’s report.

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date November 17, 2009

The House resumed yesterday after a week long break and the top story was the salary of BC Ferries CEO David Hahn. The report generating the intense debate was requested by the Transportation Minister Shirely Bond but she will not be taking any immediate action.

“…the person who requested the review, B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond, said she’s not ready yet to make any changes.

“BCFS executive compensation was significantly higher than that paid by several larger public sector entities,” said British Columbia’s comptroller general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland in the 97-page Report on Review of Transportation Governance Models.

“For example, the Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) total 2008/09 compensation was more than double that of the larger public sector comparators,” it said. “We also found that the performance measures and targets used to determine the incentive bonuses for executives made the bonuses easier to attain than we would have expected.”

In July, B.C. Ferries revealed CEO David Hahn last year made over $1 million and four more executives each made around $500,000. ”

Read the full story from the Tyee.

Read the full report: Report on Review of Transportation Governance models

Tags British Columbia

News

Update on BC Treaty Commission – Common Table Report released

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 15, 2009

After 16 years of negotiations, the BC Treaty Commission asks Harper to step in – article from Globe and Mail.

The BC Treaty Commission’s annual report for 2009 is available online.

On October 13, 2009, the BC Treaty Commission released the Common Table Report, which captures the 13 days of discussions in 2008 among the governments of Canada and British Columbia and more than 60 First Nations. Included are 21 opportunities the parties agreed to explore further to move treaty negotiations forward.

Tags British Columbia, First Nations

Uncategorized

Provinces not unanimous about H1N1 – BC H1N1 website.

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 2, 2009

Read the story from the Globe and Mail. On Sept. 29, 2009, the BC Government issued an Information Bulletin on the H1N1 virus and the BC Ministry of Health also has a H1N1 websit e.

Tags British Columbia, Current Events, health

News

Premier Campbell announces new cabinet.

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date June 11, 2009

Premier Campbell shuffled his cabinet on Wednesday making room for new MLAs with a surprising 7 positions going to new incoming MLAs and 2 positions going to former backbenchers. The Legislature will be recalled later this summer on August 25th, which will be followed by the budget speech on Sept. 01.

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Here’s a list of the new cabinet members:

Premier – Hon. Gordon Campbell

Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations – Hon. Naomi Yamamoto

Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation – Hon. George Abbott

Advanced Education and Labour Market Development – Hon. Moira Stilwell

Agriculture and Lands – Hon. Steve Thomson

Attorney General – Hon. Mike de Jong

Children and Family Development and Minister Responsible for Child Care – Hon. Mary Polak

Citizens’ Services and Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and the Public Affairs Bureau – Hon. Ben Stewart

Community and Rural Development – Hon. Bill Bennett

Education and Minister Responsible for Early Learning and Literacy – Hon. Margaret MacDiarmid

Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources – Hon. Blair Lekstrom

Minister of State for Mining – Hon. Randy Hawes

Environment – Hon. Barry Penner

Minister of State for Climate Action – Hon. John Yap

Finance and Deputy Premier – Hon. Colin Hansen

Forests and Range and Minister Responsible for the Integrated Land Management Bureau – Hon. Pat Bell

Health Services – Hon. Kevin Falcon

Healthy Living and Sport – Hon. Ida Chong

Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC – Hon. Mary McNeil

Housing and Social Development – Hon. Rich Coleman

Labour – Hon. Murray Coell

Public Safety and Solicitor General – Hon. Kash Heed

Small Business, Technology and Economic Development – Hon. Iain Black

Tourism, Culture and the Arts – Hon. Kevin Krueger

Transportation and Infrastructure – Hon. Shirley Bond

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Take a look at the BC News release and accompanying Backgrounder here

Tags British Columbia