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Host Peter McCully chats with Wolfgang Depner, legislative reporter for Black Press Media.
Depner explains the tone for the opening session of the fall sitting of the B.C. legislature was set by the BC Conservative party, who recently gained party status when Bruce Banman crossed the floor from the BC United Party.
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad’s opening question was regarding SOGI 123 and MLA Banman stood in the house to talk about explicit content available in certain fictional books in public school libraries.
Depner tells McCully: “The sound and the dynamic of the place has changed. It has made question period more interesting, one might say. It has given the whole legislature a different sound. Any number of speakers, certainly from the NDP, certainly from the BC Greens have raised concerns about the tone in the legislature. The Conservatives for their part have said that they’re just speaking on behalf of constituents.”
British Columbia is in the first of a three-year trial period for decriminalizing the possession of small portions of hard drugs. The drug use bill received some fine tuning, with changes introduced under first reading.
Homeless counts are updated as well as the average cost of renting and purchasing housing in British Columbia.
McCully asked Depner about the proposed fines for BC Ferries, which include $7,000 for missing a sailing.
“It’s really hard to make an assessment how effective they will be,” said Depner. “But I would say it shows that certainly from the government’s perspective that it wants to improve the service.”
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