BC government is suffering from bill backlog

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VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – The BC government is suffering from bill backlog.

There are 20 bills before the Legislature ranging from changes to BC’s impaired driving laws to amendments to the act that governs BC Ferries.

This doesn’t include the highly anticipated bill that will transition BC from the Harmonized Sales Tax to the old GST/PST system.

The final draft isn’t finished yet, though Finance Minister Kevin Falcon is expected to table it in the near future.

NDP finance critic John Horgan says it would be irresponsible to try and plow through it all before the spring session wraps up at the end of May.

“We’re debating what was tabled yesterday,” Horgan says.  “We’ve just had a chance to crack the documents and here we are debating them.  How are you supposed to do your job under those circumstances?”

The premier has ruled out extending the spring session beyond the end of the month.

That leaves ten sitting days in the Legislature to get through more than 600 pages of documents written in “legalese.”

“It is problematic in terms of not having a full and proper debate on some key issues so some things may get rushed through,” says University of the Fraser Valley Political Science Department Head Hamish Telford.

“That’s when mistakes are made and it can come back to bite you later if the law is flawed or found by the courts to be unacceptable for any particular reason.  Also, it seems to me the BC Legislature just doesn’t sit enough days of the year and that’s been a historical problem.”

Horgan wants to see much of the legislation pushed to the fall session so that the government can focus on the HST debate.

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