The B.C. Conservatives say a crucial vote on the controversial Bill 15 was improperly cast because of a blurred background on an NDP MLA’s video call.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said that under Speaker Raj Chouhan’s established rule, an MLA voting by video must not have a virtual background, and the picture must be clear enough to show the location.
Conservative MLA Peter Milobar alleged immediately after the vote that Rick Glumac, the Minister of State for Trade, broke this rule. The votes for Bill 14 and Bill 15 both ended in a tie, with the speaker casting the deciding vote.
Rustad called the incident “blurgate.”
“They decided to break their own rule and to allow that vote to be counted,” he said.
Rustad said he looked into ways to oust Chouhan from the speaker role because of this, but found that the only way is for Chouhan to resign, die, or leave via an election.
“So, there is no mechanism that we can do, unfortunately, to be able to voice that displeasure in the confidence we have with the speaker,” he said.
Government house leader Mike Farnworth called Rustad’s claims that Glumac’s background broke the rules “nonsense.”
“Blurring is not a virtual background,” he said. “Maybe a member of the opposition sitting on a beach, with half a coconut with an umbrella in it, on palm trees — that would be a virtual background.”
Farnworth did not shy away from admitting that the two bills passed on Wednesday evening did not have broad support in the House.
Nevertheless, he defended the need for the twin pair of bills to bring renewable energy project permitting under the BC Energy Regulator and expedite permitting for infrastructure projects.
“Yeah, Bill 14 and Bill 15 were controversial,” Farnworth said. “There were a lot of people opposed, a lot of people in favour. But we made it clear that we want to get things done in this province.”
