MLA's week, February 15-18, 2016

Week Number two of the new session at the British Columbia Legislature had a bit of a Prince Rupert theme to it this week.

With the late week portion of the session turned over to concerns over reports of lead in the water in four schools in the community, an issue which took up a good portion of Question Period over two days this week.

A number of Opposition NDP MLA's took to questioning Health Minister Terry Lake on the issue,  a focus which included a pair of appearances from North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice who raised the issue both Wednesday and Thursday.

Ms. Rice also took time this week to celebrate the opening of the new Cow Bay Marina project in Prince Rupert, providing a few notes on the development for the Legislature on Thursday.

It was also Budget Week for the Governing Liberals who provided the details on their financial planning for the year ahead. A blue print which it seems still holds fast to the goal of creating an LNG industry in the province, even if there to this point is no shovel in the ground, or few revenues delivered from the still in development industry.

You can review the full Liberal Government Budget here, while our political portal Darcy McGee tracked some of the reviews and background to the recently delivered financial plan through our Tuesday and Wednesday news digests.

As we do at the end of each week of the Legislature session, we outline some of the main notes of interest from the North Coast MLA's work week.

Ms Rice was listed three times in the archive of participants for the seven  sessions of the Legislature in the House, or for those listings related to her work on House Committees for the week of February 15 to 18.

On Wednesday, she outlined in the Legislature the details of a report from School District 52 and Northern Health on the issue of lead in the water at four community schools, asking a number of questions of Health Minister Terry Lake on what the Ministry knew about the issue and how they would address it.

MLA Rice raises School District lead levels issue in Legislature

The topic continued to resonate with the Legislature on Thursday, with Opposition leader John Horgan joining with MLA Rice and other NDP MLA's in directing a range of questions towards the Health Minister on the issue.

NDP continues to make SD52 water concerns part of Legislature debate

Thursday also found Ms. Rice celebrating the opening of the Cow Bay Marina project, with the MLA providing a short overview of the project for the Legislature.

Rice Celebrates Cow Bay Marina completion and opening

Ms Rice is also a member of the Committee on Children and Youth, however that Committee did not meet this week.

Members of the Legislature return to the Chamber on Monday morning.

There is more background on the North Coast MLA available from our MLA's Week Archive as well as our General Archive on the Legislature.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review