More than 10,000 people sign petition to repeal BC's Bill 36

Public

Vancouver, BC - February 13, 2023.

A petition to repeal BC's Bill 36 - Health Professions and Occupations Act has already gathered more than 10,800 signatures. It was presented to the BC Parliament when the session resumed earlier this month. More signatures are still being collected and will be presented to the House later. It is already one of the largest petitions introduced to the BC Legislature.

The Bill was rushed through the legislature in November 2022 after early closure of debate by the majority NDP Government. While professional regulators had some input to the development of the Bill they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements preventing the information being shared for feedback and knowledge of the legislation to be known widely by health professionals or the public.

Here is a video interview with the MLA John Rustad and Dr York Hsiang providing an update on the petition and the concerns regarding Bill 36.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kng4M7o8okA

Weblinks

https://www.leg.bc.ca/content-parliamentary-business/Pages/Petitions.aspx

Petitions

Guidelines for Petitioning the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

A fundamental concept of parliamentary democracy is the right of the public to have access to parliament by way of petition. A petition can be from an individual or group and can relate to the passage of a bill or the government’s consideration of an important public issue. Since the Legislative Assembly is a representative institution, it considers only those matters submitted to it by its own Members and petitions are no exception.

Only Members of the Legislative Assembly may present a petition in the House; however, residents of the Province of British Columbia have the right to petition their legislators. A petition is a request that the Legislative Assembly take some specific action (or refrain from taking some action) to redress an alleged public grievance. The action requested must be within the scope of jurisdiction of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, and the request must be clear, concise, accurate and temperate.

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