THE MEDIA ROOM

» MEDIA OFFICE CLOSED

The media and communications office of the Citizens' Assembly now is closed.

» MAKING CONTACT

You may see contact numbers and addresses on Assembly webpages. However, these contacts are no longer active. (The website itself will stay alive at least through 17 May 2005, but daily updates ceased on 21 December 2004.)

Here are some alternative contacts:

Prior to the referendum on electoral reform that will be held on 17 May 2005, the B.C. ministry of the attorney general intends to open a referendum information office to serve the public. Until that office is open, we suggest that you call the ministry: 250 -387-1866

The public is being urged, meanwhile, to call the provincial government's Enquiry BC service.

Hours of operation for Enquiry BC are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific, Monday through Friday.

» CONTACTING MEMBERS

The Assembly now has disbanded.  But you can still get in touch with the Assembly Alumni, a large group of ex-members of the Assembly.

» FINAL REPORT

The Assembly published its recommendation in a Final Report on 10 December 2004:

Copies of the report will be sent to all of B.C.'s 1.52 million households in the third week of January 2004. Copies will also be distributed to libraries, municipal halls, First Nations offices, schools and colleges, MLAs' offices, government agents, and others.

A much longer "Technical Report", which includes background and historical documents, was released on 20 December 2004. The Technical Report will also be distributed to libraries, municipal halls, First Nations offices, schools and colleges, MLAs' offices, government agents, and others.

» IT'S BC-STV

Members of B.C.'s Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform propose a new proportional electoral system for the province: BC-STV, short for British Columbia Single Transferable Vote.

Under the BC-STV 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.

Now it's up to the voters of B.C., who will cast ballots on BC-STV in a referendum in the next provincial election, on May 17, 2005. The question drafted for the referendum reads:

After almost 10 months of study, research and debate, plus 50 public hearings and 1,603 written submissions from the public, Assembly Members overwhelmingly chose the made-in-B.C. proportional BC-STV system as their recommendation to the people.

The provincial government says that if voters approve the BC-STV model in the referendum, it will introduce legislation so the new system can go into effect for the 2009 election.

The BC-STV model was custom-built by members to meet the needs of B.C. and to address three over-riding values: local representation, voter choice, and increased "proportionality" – the concept that each party’s share of seats in the house should reflect its share of the popular vote.

» MEDIA LOG

Here's a log of media coverage of the Assembly, through 23 December 2004. It lists known media items by date, media, headline and more.  It's an Excel spreadsheet (348KB).