Delta South independent MLA Vicki Huntington and Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver are calling for renewed dialogue on how to meaningfully improve the committee system in the B.C. legislature.
"Committees can play a valuable role for scrutiny, oversight and influencing the creation of legislation," said Huntington. "There is a wealth of experience in the House, and committees allow us to examine important issues in a less partisan setting. Unfortunately, the committee system we have now is largely ineffective and mostly invisible."
The duo says the aboriginal affairs committee last met in 2003 for three minutes, while the education committee last met in 2005 for a total of 12 minutes.
"Too often legislation is brought forward without the time taken to gather input from MLAs and the wider public," said Weaver. "One simple way we can ensure that our politicians are receiving the best possible information on the issues of greatest concern to British Columbians is through a reformed committee process."
Last week, Huntington and Weaver sent a joint letter to house leader Mike de Jong urging for a renewed focus on committee reform. This letter follows previous commitments from the government to begin a discussion on this topic.
"In the last spring session both the house leader and the premier expressed an interest in reforming how our committee system operates," said Huntington. "Cooperation between MLAs can create better and fundamentally more democratic solutions, as well as giving a more meaningful role to backbench MLAs. Due to time constraints, however, that initial conversation never progressed into meaningful reforms."
With the controversial reforms to the ALR last year as a backdrop, the official Opposition recently formed its own opposition standing committee on agriculture and food. Huntington will act as vice chair.
"That the official Opposition felt the need for an opposition agriculture committee serves to highlight how the system is broken," said Weaver.
