Friday, September 14 ~ BC. Regarding Proportional Representation which will soon be voted on in a BC-wide referendum October 22 to November 30, Premier John Horgan said he looks to the possibility of the BC electoral system “as a form of cooperation rather than conflict”.
He was addressing delegates of the 115th Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Whistler on September 14. His speech was livecast.
“The adversarial relationships of opposition in government have been long established and they are valuable. But I think they have to be amended for the 21st century, to be contemporary with the people we represent,” he said.
Regarding the wildfire season – which is expected to recur with relative severity for the next few years – Horgan acknowledged that wildfire smoke was “omnipresent in entire province”. To help address the fires, Horgan said he was pleased with federal government support this summer.
He is further encouraged that military personnel will get training in fire and flood responses for next time. For better wildfire management, getting fuel off the forest floor is a start. Horgan says his government also supports an initiative to develop research chairs at UNBC, UBC Okanagan and Thompson Rivers University “to make sure we’re getting real time research and state-of-the-art thinking from within the region”.
At several points in his 35-minute speech Horgan targeted the presumed NDP-naysayers in the audience, to point out the holistic nature of the economy: it’s “not just money in and out”. In that context he reviewed the interconnection of housing affordability, child care availability, and providing educational opportunities with success for businesses and the workplace. The 4.5% rent increase for 2019 (a spillover from the BC Liberal government) will be looked at this fall.
He spoke of some expected success with an LNG deal, and said that tax regimes and regulations would be similar for all resource industries in BC.
::: As first published in the September 14, 2018 print/PDF issue of West Shore Voice News