MLAs wrapping up the spring session in the Legislature

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VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – A four-month session of the BC Legislature ends today.

In that time, politicians have passed a balanced budget and debated, amended and adopted at least two dozen laws.

OMNI TV political analyst Kim Emerson says the provincial government is proud of its progress around LNG. “If you talk to the government, it’s the most awesome thing since sliced bread; they’ve got themselves a $36-billion deal with Petronas.”

“In actual fact, they don’t have anything of the sort. They have a memorandum of understanding. They have not got the final investment decision; we don’t if that’s going to be a month or maybe never,” says Emerson.

“The NDP says there’s no deal here at all, the premier promised during the election campaign that there would be a plant operational by this year. That’s certainly not the case. So LNG still remains, as Mike de Jong, the finance minister put it several months ago, an ‘aspirational idea,'” he adds.

The premier says one of her greatest accomplishments include progress around multi-billion dollar Site C dam.

“That’s a project that has escalated in cost and hasn’t even had a shovel hit the ground yet. They do promise that will happen this summer, but they’ve still got a lot of work to do with First Nations in the area,” says Emerson.

“The costs of the Site C Dam in the last few years alone have gone from less than $7 billion to now over $9 billion — the biggest project in the province’s history, if LNG doesn’t go ahead. And they still don’t even have a shovel in the ground. The NDP says this power isn’t needed right now. Andrew Weaver of the Green Party says they should look at alternatives — thermal energey, wind energy — instead of trying to push through the Site C Dam.”

He doubts there will be a fall session of the Legislature. “If you think there’s going to be a fall session, you’re one of few who do.”

“The only way that it appears that there will be a fall session is if the government gets to a point where they want to bring in legislation to deal with the LNG industry; what it would specifically look at… is a project development agreement which would lay out exactly what is expected from the government, what is expected from the company as they move forward. They would put in the legislation that they don’t have to come back for each subsequent LNG arrangement; it would simply be an amendment in regulations.”

“That’s the only reason, I think, you may see the Legislature recalled before next spring. The government hasn’t liked getting beat up last fall, they haven’t liked getting beat up this spring. They don’t like the way the NDP is treating them. The NDP is just exposing them for what they’re doing, in many cases,” adds Emerson.

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