The governmental organization for the Provinces of Canada is similar to that of the Federal Government in many ways and sometimes only varies in the titles. For example in British Columbia there is a Lieutenant Governor (instead of a Governor General), a Premier (Prime Minister), a Legislative Assembly (Parliament), Ministries (Departments) and Supreme Court of BC. Notably the Provinces do not have an upper house (Senate). There are some differences among the 10 Provinces but they are much the same (e.g. the words Legislative Assembly, National Assembly, Provincial Parliament and House of Assembly are variously used). The 3 Territories are today in the process of moving towards province-like status and systems although they too vary.
In the Provinces governments are formed by electing representatives from constituencies and candidates are members of provincial political parties that tend to be formally separate from federal parties of the same name (although there may be all kinds of cooperation and alliances in practice). In British Columbia we elect Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the presently 85 seat Legislature. The BC Liberal Party is currently in power (45 members) and the opposition is formed by the New Democratic Party of BC (39); there is currently 1 vacancy.
In the second session we will examine the roles of the BC Provincal Government along with selected other governance organizations, through selected key examples relating to sustainability and planning. Review the ministry and crown agency web sites listed below to begin developing your familiarity with who does what while thinking about responses to the questions on the agenda below in preparation for the session's discussions.
The amount of information available to you here is again enormous and frequently changing. Even more than the Federal Government , the BC Government has attempted to have a consistent and integrated approach to its web sites. You will also find that there has been a substantial effort under the Liberal Government to re-organize the structure of the ministries to re-orient them to a more business-like, customer service orientation. You should endeavour to develop and maintain your knowledge of this organization over time. To the extent that this is new to you, I suggest you begin by looking at the the home pages for the listed ministries and their divisions/branches. Information of the "About Us" kind is more likely to be found for the sub-divisions or branches. Then selectively look more searchingly into the topic areas of particular interest to you.
Beginning with the home page for the BC Government there is some emphasis being given by the Liberal Government to new policies relating to sustainability (although this term is not always used) but notably this has slipped from the major emphasis 12 months ago. In the last couple of years LiveSmart BC has been used as the branding for the suite of initiatives. From this page note the links into many different ministries and their programs. If you go into some of the links you will find that they are generally narrower in coverage and less developed in terms of provincial government action than their title might suggest.
Ministry of Community and Rural Development
The Local Government Department We will look at this site in more detail for today's third session.
BC Housing An example of a crown corporation.
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General
Ministry of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
Integrated Land Management Bureau
Environmental Protection Division
Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport
Ministry of Children and Family Development
Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation
Union of BC Municipalities UBCM