THE LAST WORD
Plecas calls for reform
As Darryl Plecas prepares to surrender the three-cornered hat of the Speaker of the legislature, he's leaving behind some “wonderful” and “fantastic” proposals for reforming the institution.
Many of the ideas seem calculated to provoke reaction, as befits a maverick politician who courted controversy throughout his three years as Speaker.
So there's a call for an end to applause, desk-banging and heckling in question period, backed up by the threat of “disciplinary” action for “unacceptable behaviour in the Chamber.”
MLAs would be subjected to annual report cards assessing their performance. They'd be given training “on the power of both speech and listening.”
The house would start taking attendance and MLA absences would be reported publicly.
The news media would be encouraged to provide legislature coverage that was “more like an accessible briefing note on relevance and less like a story about villains and heroes.”
The press gallery ( boo, hiss) would be subject to scrutiny via an “annual report card of the media's coverage of the legislative assembly.”
There's a call too, for “a non-partisan fact-checker of statements made by MLAs in the chamber,” which is actually something the press gallery tries to do right now.
All this and more is contained in two reports that Plecas released Thursday, both the product of his Speaker's Forum on the role of MLAs.
The forum unfolded over several sessions with stakeholders starting in 2018 and continuing through 2019. But a planned roundup of discussions in 2020 was precluded by the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the early election.
Nevertheless, Plecas pulled together recommendations from the first two years into a report with ideas that could be implemented straight away and another for consideration in the longer term.
The ideas emerged from roundtable discussions with political scientists, former MLAs, Indigenous leaders, youth, legislative interns and journalists. (I took part in an early discussion, though not when the proposals for the press gallery or media coverage were generated.)
Plecas does not identify the source of any of the ideas. But he endorses them with characteristic enthusiasm.
“The Year One (2018) and Year Two (2019) roundtables were extremely successful,” he wrote in a covering letter.
“I remain deeply grateful to those who participated in those roundtables, and who offered fantastic ideas for how our system of governance could be strengthened and positively reformed. I commend all of those wonderful ideas to members of the (next) parliament for consideration.”
He puts the immediate focus on the shorter of the two reports calling it “a blueprint for real reforms that I see as being very implementable by the legislative assembly in the not-too-distant future.”
His list of doables includes a code of conduct for MLAs, reform of question period, increased training and resources for all members, and greater accessibility to the legislature for the public.
“I hope that members of the 42nd parliament will take the opportunity to review this report and be promoters and, where applicable, leaders, in driving change,” wrote Plecas.
The 42nd parliament convenes Monday with the members elected Oct. 24. The first order of business is to elect a Speaker to succeed Plecas, who did not run for re-election.
The government is putting forward Raj Chouhan, the Burnaby New Democrat who served with patience and dignity as deputy Speaker to the mercurial Plecas in the last house.
Plecas was still in the building this week, wrapping up unfinished business with his chief of staff Alan Mullen. The rumour mill suggests they may yet drop one more piece of news, perhaps related to the still unresolved investigation into the former clerk and former sergeant-at-arms. The case, launched two years ago, is in the hands of two special prosecutors.
As for Plecas' hope that this week's reports will become the blueprint for reforming the legislature, I doubt it.
Some of the ideas would overturn the fundamentals of the institution, with a government exercising power and an opposition holding it to account as a government-in-waiting.
Examples: “Offer training in ethical partisanship. Assign seating in the chamber randomly, without regard to caucus groups, and rotate it on a regular basis. Develop the legislature as an ethical space for dialogue and consensus building.”
Others seem unlikely, for practical or political reasons: Remove Hansard cameras. Hold question period later in the day so it is less likely to be covered by the media. Require the government to respond to petitions within a fixed deadline.
Other ideas have been around for years and might be taken up separately in the future: Lowering the voting age to 16. Setting aside more time for opposition parties. Greater use of legislature committees. Better use of social media, live streaming, virtual forums and apps to engage the public. Provide a rotating scholarship for smaller newspapers so they can be working members of the press gallery.
But I wouldn't expect to see any of those ideas translated by the legislature into a formal followup to the Plecas reports.
The B.C. Liberals have never forgiven Plecas for deserting them to serve as an independent Speaker under the NDP. The New Democrats, while happy to have his support when they needed it, are relieved to be rid of having to rely on it.
Having shaken off the limitations of minority government, Premier John Horgan is not inclined to adopt reforms that would check his power to proceed as he sees fit for the next four years.