British Columbia (legislation).

• Author: Reimer, Neil

The current legislative session continued through July, with a crowded order paper of government initiatives. To accommodate debate on some contentious matters, the House has been sitting evenings for several weeks, including several very late nights and one 20-hour continuous sitting.

Legislation

The central focus of debate in the House from late June to mid-July was Bill 26, the Labour Code Amendment Act. Introduced by Labour Minister Dale Lovick (Nanaimo), the bill would make it easier for unions to organize in B.C.'s non-residential construction industry. The official opposition, the Liberals, immediately focussed intense criticism on the bill and extended second reading debate for some time.

In this, they were aided by the success of a rare procedural manoeuvre. One of their members, prior to the usual lunchtime adjournment, moved adjournment of the House without first moving adjournment of the debate. The significance of the tactic was not noticed by those government members present in the House at the time, who allowed the motion to pass. The motion for second reading of the bill thus became a "dropped order", forcing the government to place a motion on the order paper for reinstatement of second reading. The reinstatement motion was opposed by the Liberals, who pointed to a precedent of the U.K. House of Commons in which a dropped order was not proceeded with. Speaker Gretchen Mann Brewin (Victoria-Beacon Hill) was forced to rule on the procedure for reinstatement. In doing so, she ruled that the re-instatement motion was in order but was debatable. The opposition then engaged in a protracted debate on the motion, which passed after five days of debate. The bill finally received second reading on July 14th, after some 80 hours of debate.

Though the Labour Code amendments have dominated House business, other significant legislation has been introduced. On July 17, the government introduced controversial changes to the Lottery Act. This was in response to a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling that the regime under which charity casinos had operated in the province from 1986 to 1997 was improperly structured, and thus was in contravention of the Criminal Code. The legislative changes seek to protect the government and charities from legal action in regard to casino licensing fees that may, as a result of the ruling, have been illegally paid. The new law would apply retroactively to 1986.

Municipal Affairs Minister Jenny Kwan...