Premier Christy Clark opened a rare fall sitting of the B.C. Legislature this week by taking on the Opposition New Democrats on an issue crucial to the BC Liberals’ electoral success: Jobs.
Typically, fall sittings provide the opposition the chance to highlight government failures, and the BC NDP tried to do that in this mid-term sitting with questions focused on problems with BC’s child welfare system, a data security breach by the Ministry of Education, and fears that agricultural lands close to Vancouver’s port lands could be converted into industrial lands. On the latter issue, Premier Clark turned the tables on the NDP for what she called “the opposition’s opposition to jobs.”
“We [BC Liberals] want to deliver jobs for the people of British Columbia. So while they didn’t support the Coquihalla Highway, they don’t support the Alex Fraser Bridge, they didn’t support Expo 86, they didn’t support building B.C. Place, they didn’t support the Sea to Sky Highway, they didn’t support the Port Mann Bridge, they didn’t support the South Fraser Perimeter Road, they didn’t support LNG, and they don’t support Site C … and now they don’t support a port expansion that could create thousands and thousands of jobs for working people in this province,” Premier Clark said.
“The only people in this House who are on the side of working people in British Columbia, is the government on this side of the House,” she said.
The six-week session is expected to see the passage of a light load of housekeeping legislation. The Electoral Boundaries Act, Auditor General for Local Government Act, Municipal Electoral Boundaries Act, and Red Tape Reduction Day Act will be introduced or amended by the end of the sitting. |
