2011 4th Session 39th Parliament

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

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Hansard indexes are alphabetical lists of words or phrases (called headings and subheadings), plus names of Members of the Legislative Assembly and hyperlinks that take users to where that information can be found in the debates transcripts.

Index headings are the topics that MLAs talked about in the Legislature: people, places and organizations; subjects ranging from Agriculture to Zoning; legislation such as the Forest Act; ministry estimates under each ministry name (e.g. Education, Ministry of), and other procedural or business information such as Oral questions by subject, Motions and Petitions.

• Indexes contain information for each session, usually a calendar year.
• Indexes are cumulative; information is added as a session progresses until the session ends in prorogation. Priority is given to question period topics, then completed bills, ministry estimates and so on. Indexes are not finalized until after a session has prorogued.
• The introduction of guests and visitors is not indexed. However, Hansard, as well as the indexes, can be word-searched using Advanced Search.
• Access indexes by current session from Debates.
  

SUBJECT INDEX: topics, places, people

• Click on Debates.
• Under Indexes, click on SUBJECT INDEX and browse the A-Z headings list (or use a Ctrl+F keyword search of the page).
• Index contains information on topics including people, places and organizations.

MEMBERS INDEX: speeches, voting records, biographies

• Click on Debates.
• Under Indexes, click on MEMBERS INDEX and browse the list of Members of the Legislative Assembly (last name, first name).
• Biography links: browse MLA biographies.
• Topics links: browse A-Z listing of topics an MLA spoke on in the Assembly.
• Committees links (e.g. "CY" for Children and Youth Committee): browse A-Z listing of topics or MLA names.
• Votes links: browse listing of MLA names for voting records.

BUSINESS INDEX: bills, estimates, question periods

• Click on Debates.
• Under Indexes, click on BUSINESS INDEX and browse the A-Z headings list (or use a Ctrl+F keyword search of page).

Search Legislation

• Click on Debates.
• Under Indexes, click on SUBJECT INDEX or BUSINESS INDEX and browse the A-Z headings list (or use a Ctrl+F search) for the name of the legislation (e.g. Forest Act).
• If the name of the bill is not known, choose the subject of the legislation in the Subject Index (e.g. Sales tax) and see if there is information there. If there was legislation on that subject during a session, there will be a cross-reference under the subheading "Legislation" to link to the name of the act.

                e.g.
                         Sales tax
                                  Legislation See Provincial Sales Tax Act

• NOTE: Hansard is a record of what was debated in the House. If a bill (or a particular section of a bill) was not debated, it won't appear in the index. In these cases, it is often helpful to look up the same subject over multiple sessions to trace the history of debate on an issue (e.g. the subject heading Pensions appears in a number of sessions, but not every session will necessarily have legislation for pensions).
• To view an act or statute (a bill that has passed through all stages in the House and therefore now a law), go to BC Laws.
  

Search Estimates

• Click on Debates.
• Under Indexes, click on SUBJECT INDEX or BUSINESS INDEX and browse the A-Z headings list (or use a Ctrl+F search) for the name of the ministry estimates (e.g. Agriculture, Ministry of).
• NOTE: information about a ministry itself (e.g., budget or staffing) will be under the ministry name (e.g. Health, Ministry of), as well as the sittings and speakers on the estimates. Information about the subjects relevant to a ministry portfolio will be under topical subject headings (e.g. Health care system, Mental health, Physicians and so on).

Search Multiple Sessions

• There are two ways to search multiple sessions of the index.

Search multiple sessions - one at a time:

• Click on Debates.
• Determine a time range and search in each sessional index for that range (e.g. search each of the five sessional indexes from 2005-2009 that make up the 38th parliament).

Search multiple sessions - multi-session keyword search:

• Click on Advanced Search.
• Enter a key word in the search window and select the sessions or parliaments to search. This will return hits on keywords in the index, which will then link users to the sessional index(es) to search for that topic.
  

Search Pre-2005 Indexes

• Click on Debates.
• Pre-2005 indexes (in the 37th parliament and earlier) do not split the indexes into subject, members and business indexes. Rather, single A-Z subject-speaker indexes that contain all of those headings are available.
• The A-Z indexes may be searched like later indexes: browse (or Ctrl+F search) the individual A-Z index pages, choose a heading and click on a locator link to go to the top of the page that topic is discussed in the debates.
  

INDEX STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

HEADINGS

Main subject headings in general reflect government portfolios and topics particular to British Columbia, such as:

Index entries summarise the overall content of a debate or question. For example, Education, Post-secondary education, or the name of a particular institution is used depending on the context of the subject.

Index entries are included for people, places, organizations, legislation, ministry estimates, committees, programs, initiatives, and publications, etc.

GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE

Subject entries in general refer to British Columbia unless otherwise stated. The main heading British Columbia is used for specific references to the province.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS

Index entries are included for legislative procedure and events in the House, and for individual bills and ministry estimates. In addition, all bills introduced during the session are listed in alphabetical and then numerical order under the main headings Bills by name and Bills by number.

The list of oral questions appears in the index under the main headings Oral questions by member and Oral questions by subject. Budget estimates are indexed under the name of the ministry (e.g. Environment, Ministry of).

If users are interested in matters of legislative procedure, the headings listed below will be of interest.

Address from the Bar of the House
Bills by name
Bills by number
Budget
Citizens' initiatives
Divisions, Recorded
Documents tabled
Legislation
Legislature
Ministerial statements
Motions
Oral questions by member
Oral questions by subject
Petitions
Points of order
Presentation of new member(s)
Private members' statements
Privilege
Proclamations
Prorogation address
Quorum called (under the heading Legislature)
Rulings and statements by Chair or Speaker
Speech from the Throne (includes Address in Reply)
Standing order 35 adjournment motions
Statements
Statements by members (Standing order 25B)

CROSS-REFERENCES

See directs the user to the subject heading under which entries will be found in this index. 

Example:

Doctors See Physicians

To refer to a different term under the same main heading, the phrase "above/below under this main heading" is used.

Example:

Forests and forest industry / Remanufacturing industry See Value-added sector below under this main heading

See also directs the user to related subjects or definitive headings.

Examples:

Bankruptcy See also Personal debt under Debt
British Columbia Transit See also Transit services; particular services
Education See also Post-secondary education

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, as needed, in this index are filed as follows:

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations used in the procedural entries for bills are the following:

NUMBERS

Numbers are filed in ascending order and preceding the alpha characters. Examples:

100 Mile House, B.C.
911 emergency service
Agriculture
B.C. 21 program
British Columbia Assessment
Highway 1
Highway 17

MEMBERS AS SUBJECT, MEMBERS' VOTING RECORDS

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

The records of how Members of the Legislative Assembly voted in standing votes are provided in the "Votes" links in the Members Index.

"HONOURABLE"

If an MLA is a member of cabinet for any portion of this session, "Hon." (Honourable) will be used before their name in the index and member lists, unless none of their index entries were during the time they were ministers.

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