Friday, April 4, 2014

MLA Rice raises Highway 16 and Ferries issues in Thursday morning session

The MLA for the North Coast offered up two short questions to the Transportation Minister on issues of interest to Northern British Columbia on Thursday. Asking them during  the morning session on estimates of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Her first question for Minister Todd Stone, continued on her theme of recent weeks of seeking more information on transportation issues for aboriginal women in remote communities along Highway 16.

 I have two questions. The first is in regards to Highway 16. I think I've kind of got the gist of a conversation yesterday with the Minister of Transportation and another member. I'm just looking for clarification on what, if any, action is going to be taken on addressing the needs of aboriginal women living in remote communities between Prince Rupert and Prince George. 

The Minister advised that discussions between the provincial government and community stakeholders to review the transportation aspect of the Oppal report.

With three Provincial ministries, Transportation, Justice and Community Services now collaborating to identify safe transportation options for residents of the Highway 16 corridor.

As a follow up question, Ms. Rice then made an inquiry regarding BC Ferries, picking up on the theme of the City of Prince Rupert report of February and the desire to see an economic impact analysis done on the cuts to be put in place on the northern routes.

A different topic. I know that this question has been posed before, so I'm going to just frame it a little bit differently. We on this side of the House have been asking for an economic impact analysis of the recent cuts and fare hikes to B.C. Ferries. My question would be: what would it take in order to have this be conducted by the provincial government?

On that topic he didn't seem to agree with the aspect of a required study, suggesting the larger issue is to fix the ferry system, a commitment that he stressed the province is determined to follow through on.

You can review the full exchange between Minister Stone and MLA Rice from the Legislature record. Ms. Rice's questions are the first ones of the session.

For more items of interest on developments at the Legislature see our Archive page.

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