News release - Assembly issues report

Citizens' Assembly issues report

The final report of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform will be issued Friday. (December 10)

Making Every Vote Count: The Case for Electoral Reform in British Columbia includes an explanation of why the Assembly is recommending that B.C. adopt a new proportional electoral system, called BC-STV.

The 16-page report will be presented to the B.C. government in Victoria Friday morning.

And at 11 a.m. the report will be posted on the Assembly's website: www.citizensassembly.bc.ca. Versions in Chinese, Punjabi and French will be posted as soon as available after that.

In late January, a copy of the report will be delivered to every household in B.C. If you'd like to get one before then, you can call the Assembly office at 604-660-1232 (toll free: 1-866-667-1232) or e-mail info@citizensassembly.bc.ca with your name and mailing address.

Copies will also be available to the public through libraries, government agents, community and First Nations centres, schools and colleges, MLAs' offices, provincial and national archives and other locations.

The new proportional electoral system the Assembly members are proposing is BC-STV, short for British Columbia Single Transferable Vote.

Under this system, voters rank candidates by numbers on the ballot paper. BC-STV is designed to make every vote count, and to reflect voters' support for candidates and parties as fairly as possible, while retaining local representation by MLAs.

It was proposed by the Assembly after 10 months of study, research and debate, including 50 public hearings and 1,603 written submissions from the public.

Now it's up to the voters of B.C., who will vote on BC-STV in a referendum in the next provincial election on May 17, 2005. The government says that if voters approve the proportional BC-STV model, it will introduce legislation so the new system can go into effect for the 2009 election.

The Citizens’ Assembly -- an independent, representative, non-partisan group of 160 randomly selected British Columbians -- now disbands, and its office begins to close.

Details of its work and the BC-STV system are at www.citizensassembly.bc.ca