BC NDP moves Amendment to Bill 22

This afternoon, the BC NDP House Leader (and MLA for Juan de Fuca) John Horgan moved the following amendment to Bill 22 (Education Improvement Act):

That the motion for second reading of Bill 22, intituled Education Improvement Act, be amended by deleting all the words following the word "That" and substituting therefore the following: "[That] it is not in the best interests of the education system in British Columbia for the government to legislate teachers back to work when an independent mediator could be appointed by the government and the Labour Relations Board to resolve the collective bargaining dispute without legislation.

Under the rules of the BC Legislature - debate begins again for the 82 MLA's (NDP/BC Liberal/Ind) on the amendment to Bill 22 and unless the BC Liberals plan to invoke closure next week - it will be impossible to pass the Bill by next Thursday as George Abbott hoped would occur in his comments to provincial media, earlier today.  Note - each member has 30 minutes to speak to the amendment.  Debate is on-going today on the amendment until 6:00pm today and then resumes next Monday afternoon, with subsequent debate periods on the amendment Tuesday morning/afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning/afternoon when the BC Legislature will rise on Thursday, March 15th for a 10 day spring break recess and the BC Legislature will then resume on Monday, March 26th

If/when the amendment is defeated - then the following MLA's may continue to speak to 2nd Reading of Bill 22 (when the BC Legislature returns to that debate), please note that John Horgan says that BC Liberal Gov't House Leader Rich Coleman has informed him that no other BC Liberal MLA's will be speaking to 2nd Reading of Bill 22:

MLA	Party
John Horgan (resuming debate)	BC NDP
Michelle Mungall	BC NDP
Maurine Karagianis	BC NDP
Mike Farnworth	BC NDP
Rob Fleming	BC NDP
Ben Stewart	BC Liberal
Doug Horne	BC Liberal
Eric Foster	BC Liberal
John Slater	BC Liberal
John van Dongen	BC Liberal
Kash Heed	BC Liberal
Gordon Hogg	BC Liberal
Murray Coell	BC Liberal
Marc Dalton	BC Liberal
Linda Reid	BC Liberal
Ralph Sultan	BC Liberal
Joan McIntyre	BC Liberal
Richard T. Lee	BC Liberal
Norm Letnick	BC Liberal
Colin Hansen	BC Liberal
John Yap	BC Liberal
Hon. Mike De Jong, QC	BC Liberal
Hon. Don McRae	BC Liberal
Hon. Shirley Bond	BC Liberal
Hon. (Dr). Margaret McDiarmid	BC Liberal
Hon. Kevin Falcon	BC Liberal
Hon. Ida Chong	BC Liberal
Hon. Rich Coleman	BC Liberal
Hon. Pat Bell	BC Liberal
Hon. Mary Polak	BC Liberal
Hon. Naomi Yamamoto	BC Liberal
Hon. Blair Lekstrom	BC Liberal
Hon. Stephanie Cadieux	BC Liberal
Hon. Steve Thomson	BC Liberal
Hon. Christy Clark	BC Liberal
Vicki Huntington	Independent