Speaker restricts NDP questions

Speaker restricts NDP questions

Last Updated Feb 10 2005 05:07 PM PST CBC News

VICTORIA – New Democrats say they're disappointed and stunned by new limits imposed on question period in the B.C. legislature by Speaker Claude Richmond. Richmond told the house on Thursday that MLAs must follow strict time lines in posing questions, so more than three people can ask questions during the 15-minute question period. He said members must take no longer than a minute to pose their first question, 30 seconds for the supplementary and 20 seconds for the second supplementary question. The Speaker noted that with an election in May, "emotions and adrenaline are running high." And he cited Wednesday 's raucous question period as an example of what he wants to avoid. It was the first question period of the new session. And with the government admitting it wouldn't be able to keep its promise to create 5,000 new long-term care beds by next years, the NDP had lots of ammunition. A day later, the new limits were imposed. FROM FEB. 9, 2005: Liberals fall short of promise to seniors NDP house leader Joy MacPhail says she wonders just who's afraid of her three-member caucus – adding it will now be more difficult to hold the government to account. "All of a sudden there are brand new rules that never existed for question period before, no notice, no heads up, no consultation from the Speaker's office, and I need to know why," she says. At 15 minutes, the question period in the B.C. legislature is already the shortest in the Commonwealth.