The proceedings of the British Columbia Legislature resumed business today, with the province's MLA's taking their seats, though some of those seats were those of a long distance variety with a large number of those participating in today's reopening contributing by way of remote access.
The return to work for MLA's was brought about after consultation with House leaders and Doctor Bonnie Henry to ensure for the safest possible process to conduct the business of governance.
Speaker Darryl Plecas welcomed the MLA's this morning to the "Hybrid House" and then proceeded on with the day's agenda, with the Members in the House and those beamed in from afar alternating for the most part through the Morning session.
The impact of the COVID pandemic made for much of the early themes for the day's discussion from Victoria, with MLA's making note of some of the concerns that they have heard from constituents and how the restart towards economic recovery will make for as much of the conversation in the future as the pandemic response charted the last three months.
The Afternoon session featured the traditional Question Period, with Premier Horgan the focus for the opposition enquiries and commentary, most of which again were focused on the path ahead for British Columbia as it adjusts to the new reality of the COVID situation.
Since everyone is judging Zoom backgrounds these days, the early benchmark for MLA's based at home or at their constituency office belongs to Cariboo MLA Coralee Oakes, who sets the bar high and offers up the backdrop to beat for both sides of the House in these days of the Hybrid house.
One noticeable change from previous sessions, is that with less members in the Chamber and others participating remotely there is far less heckling or snarky commentary echoing through the Legislature chamber today.
So far on day one of the return, neither North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, or Skeena MLA Ellis Ross had yet to take part in the day's proceedings.
The House will remain in session through to Friday before rising again for the Holiday break, returning on July 6th for the entire month of July and part of August.
You can review the schedule of sessions here.
More notes on the work of the BC Legislature can be reviewed from our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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