2000 4th Session 36th Parliament

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia   HOME

The Hansard index provides page references to the official record of debates of the Legislative Assembly. Entries fall into one of three categories: subject, speaker or House business. Subject headings reflect the topics discussed by members; speaker headings begin with the member's name and are followed by the subjects spoken on by that member or comments made about the member; and House business headings represent the routine and other business of the Legislative Assembly (see list below). Entries under speakers' names may be less detailed than entries under subject headings. We may group similar topics under a general heading, using words like "issues" or "operations." For a more extensive breakdown of a member's debate on a topic, see the main subject heading.

The introduction of guests and visitors is not indexed. However, Hansard for the 35th and 36th Parliaments, as well as the indexes, can be word-searched electronically from the Hansard web site (http://www.legis.gov.bc.ca/hansard/search). The indexes themselves can be viewed at http://www.legis.gov.bc.ca/hansard, where the page references within the indexes are linked to the Hansard text.

CROSS-REFERENCES

Drinking and driving

See Impaired driving

To refer to a different term under the same main heading, we may use "above/below under this main heading."  
Example:

Forest industry

   Value-added industry See Remanufacturing industry above under this main heading

Assessment Appeal Board

See also Property assessment appeal board under
   Real property tax
Schools See also Education
Taxation See also particular taxes, e.g., Income tax

HOUSE BUSINESS

House business entries appear under these main headings, as needed:

Address from the Bar of the House
Bills, Legislative
Budget
Citizens' initiatives
Divisions, Recorded
Ministerial statements
Motions
Oral questions by subject area
Petitions
Presentation of new member
Proclamations
Private members' statements
Privilege
Prorogation

Quorum called (under the main heading Legislature)
Rulings and statements by Chair or Speaker
Speech from the Throne (includes Address in reply)

All bills introduced during the session are listed in numerical order under the main heading Bills, Legislative, as well as on a separate Internet page and an alphabetical list in the introductory pages of the print index. The stages of the passage of bills are listed by date and sitting in Appendix 1.

Budget estimates are listed according to the name of the ministry, legislative officer (e.g., Auditor general) or agency (e.g., Elections B.C.). The dates and sittings of estimates debates are listed in Appendix 2.

The records of how MLAs voted in standing votes are shown in Appendix 3.

The appendices are also on the Internet.

FILING SEQUENCE

The basic filing sequence used in this index is alphabetical, word by word. Punctuation is ignored in filing. 

Mc is filed as if it were spelled Mac. Abbreviations and acronyms used in this index are filed as follows:

Abbreviations used in the procedural, or business, entries for bills are the following:

Numbers are filed numerically in ascending order when they denote highway, school district or tree farm licence numbers, and as if written out when they are part of a name. Examples:

Highway 1
Highway 17
Highway 19

British Columbia Treaty Commission
B.C. 21 program
British Columbia Utilities Commission

NDP government
911 emergency telephone system
North Okanagan regional health board

NEW THIS SESSION

Under MLAs' (and others') names as main headings, any entries about the member himself/herself are grouped together and filed at the top of the member's subject headings, under the subheading As subject.

Oral questions are now grouped by subject area under the main heading Oral questions by subject area.

The voting record of each member is now available on the main index page on the Internet, headed Voting Records by Member (Standing votes). This is a consolidated list to supplement the existing entries by business item, in the index under the main heading Divisions, Recorded. They also appear as an appendix in the printed index. Recorded divisions, or standing votes, are for divisions in the House when members stand and are counted.

Some of the main subject headings we began using last session are:

Ferries and ferry services

Post-secondary education (formerly a subheading under Education)
Public debt (formerly Debt, Public)
Railways and rail services
Rulings and statements by Chair or Speaker (formerly in two places: Chair and
       Deputy Chair, Rulings and statements; and Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
       Rulings and statements)

Because of intrasessional changes in cabinet responsibilities, portfolio names are not included with ministers' names in main headings. "Hon." does not appear before members' names in subheadings.

"Quoted" and "cited" items are no longer indexed. The more substantive instances of this kind have been replaced with "comments on."

If users are interested in matters of legislative procedure, these main headings will be of interest:

Divisions, Recorded
Legislature
Motions
Privilege
Rulings and statements by Chair or Speaker

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