British Columbia’s first legislative session since the 2024 provincial election just ended, but Prince George-Valemount Conservative MLA Rosalyn Bird already has plans in motion for when the Legislature reconvenes in early October.
On May 29, Rosalyn Bird gave notice of two private member’s bills she’s developed. That same week, she also gave notice of three motions she’s looking to have the house adopt.
The first bill would amend BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act while the second would amend the Infants Act.
Reached by phone on the morning of Friday, May 30, Bird said she’s allowed to put as many items on the order paper as she wants, but when it gets close to her private member’s time, she will be asked to pick one of the motions or bills on the floor.
Any times she doesn’t proceed with can be picked up by her fellow caucus members when it’s their turn if they so choose.
For the freedom of information bill, she said she wants to make the process easier for British Columbia. She said changes to the law over the year have made it cumbersome for residents to navigate.
“It is extremely important that not only the opposition, but the residents of the province, the constituents, the voters, the taxpayers understand what it is that the government is doing, why they’re doing it, how they’re doing it and where their money is going,” Bird said.
“That is an extremely challenging process right now and it shouldn’t be. When people have roadblocks like that, they lose faith in government.”
She said she also wants to get rid of the $10 fee for filing freedom of information requests imposed by the NDP government in 2021.
The other bill she’s working on deals with part of the Infants Act.
“There is a clause in that act that enables very young individuals to have the ability to make … some fairly serious decisions regarding their lives without parental consent,” Bird said.
“Myself and many people that I have spoken to since getting elected and over the course of campaigning are very frustrated with that. Parents want to be able to be participatory with their children in regards to health education and lots of other things.”
The section she’s looking at, she said, is about health decisions and not sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) issues.
“However, it does open the conversation as to what parents should and shouldn’t be involved with,” Bird said.
While the text of Bird’s bills is not yet available, she could be referring to section 17 of the Infants Act, which says “An infant may consent to health care whether or not that health care would, in the absence of consent, constitute a trespass to the infant's person, and if an infant provides that consent, the consent is effective and it is not necessary to obtain a consent to the health care from the infant's parent or guardian.”
However, the section also stats that the infant must have the nature and consequences of the health care explained to them for the consent to be valid. Infants and minors are considered though under 19 years of age.
For Bird’s motions, the first would establish a special committee to review cremation, interment and funeral services. This item, she said, she would want to bring forward early in the new year to give the committee a full year to work on the issue.
She said the legislation surrounding what happens to a person’s remains after death haven’t been reviewed for some time and there have been some huge changes in that industry.
“There isn’t actually any piece of legislation that lays out in specific as to certain things that need to be taken into consideration when you pick up and … transport somebody once they’re deceased,” Bird said.
“There are certain things that various religions and various ethnic backgrounds, they have traditions or they have practices around what happens after somebody dies and I think it’s very important that they be respected within the industry.”
As an example of the changing ways people want their remains handled, she said Green Party Saanich North and the Islands MLA Rob Botterell recently introduced a petition signed by 2,000 who wanted to have their bodies composted after death.
The second motion would have BC officially recognize Aug. 31 as international overdose awareness day and combined it with a day where residents are encouraged to properly dispose of unused, expired or old prescriptions.
She said this is something done extensively in the United States and helps prevent circumstances where prescription drugs end up in the wrong hands.
The final motion she’s considering would change the standing orders for when budget estimates are debated in the house. Bird said she wants questions asked of ministers during this process to be submitted to the clerk’s office for response within 30 days if they aren’t answered during a session.
“If you have a number of questions as a critic, I think it’s important that the ministry address those,” Bird said. “If you don’t have the time to address them, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be addressed.”
Bird serves as the Tories' critic for citizens' services as well as the party's military liaison.
Though the Legislature isn’t sitting, Bird said she’ll keep working over the summer.
She’s on two committees working over the next few months, one reviewing the Lobbyist Transparency Act and another reviewing the Public Information Disclosure Act.
On top of that, she said she’s looking to host town halls to find out what her constituents want address and is also planning on holding a grand opening event for her Prince George constituency office on either the first or second Saturday in July.
Overall, Bird said she thought her first session in the Legislature was exciting and productive, and she’s looking forward to returning to action this fall.
“I’m very happy with how things went and what we accomplished as a caucus,” Bird said. “We were actually able to move some of the markets and make some changes because we were aggressive with the current government.”
