British Columbia.

• Author: van Leeuwen, Alayna
• Position: Legislative Reports

British Columbia's minority parliament continued to evolve following the closest electoral result in the province's history in the May 9 provincial general election.

New Cabinet

Following the June 29, 2017 defeat of the minority government led by BC Liberal Members, BC New Democratic Party (NDP) leader John Horgan was sworn in as Premier on July 18, 2017, along with a 22-Member Cabinet. The Cabinet is the province's first to have an equal number of men and women, and the first to have an Indigenous female Cabinet Minister. Premier Horgan's mandate letters to Ministers stated that the "2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the BC Green Caucus and the BC New Democrat Caucus" will be critical to the success of the new government.

Resignation of BC Liberal Party Leader

Former Premier Christy Clark announced her resignation as BC Liberal Party leader and as MLA for Kelowna West effective August 4, 2017. Former Cabinet Minister Rich Coleman was selected as interim party leader and Leader of the Official Opposition, and the party will elect a new leader on February 3, 2018. Party standings in the House are now: 41 BC Liberals; 41 BC NDP; 4 Independent (BC Green and Speaker); and 1 vacancy.

Second Session of the 41st Parliament

The first session of the 41st Parliament prorogued on September 8, 2017, following the acclamation of Darryl Plecas as Speaker. Speaker Plecas, a former BC Liberal Member, was first elected in 2013 and reelected in 2017, and is sitting as an Independent. Raj Chouhan, Assistant Deputy Speaker in the previous Parliament, was selected to serve as Deputy Speaker. Linda Reid, Speaker in the previous Parliament, now serves as Assistant Deputy Speaker. Spencer Chandra Herbert is Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole.

The second session opened in the afternoon of September 8, 2017 with the Speech from the Throne, followed by the presentation of the provincial budget on September 11, 2017 by Minister of Finance Carole James.

Legislation

In addition to an interim Supply Act, which was adopted on September 21, 2017, and legislation to implement the provincial budget, government introduced the following bills to implement key electoral platform commitments:

Bill 3, Election Amendment Act, 2017, which would make a number of campaign finance changes, including eliminating corporation and union donations, limiting political donations by individuals, and establishing publicly financed annual allowances for eligible political...