VICTORIA – New Democrats introduced legislation today that would make democratic participation more accessible in British Columbia.

“Participation in our political process is at an all-time low, and we must do everything we can to prevent British Columbians from being left out,” said Jane Shin, New Democrat MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed, who introduced the bill.

“The bill I introduced today would allow for the acceptance of electronic petitions in the House. This would modernize the longstanding practice of petitioning, and allow more people to participate.”

Currently, only paper petitions are accepted in the legislature, since a physical signature is required. The Electronic Petitions Act would allow signatories to validate their identities by providing their name, email, phone number, and mailing address in lieu of a signature.

“As well as improving accessibility, this change would also allow us to more easily authenticate petitions. Electronic petitions would more easily catch illegitimate submissions by, for instance, simply not accepting submissions with false postal codes. This would also alleviate the clerical burden of sorting through handwritten petitions.”

This change has been implemented in many other jurisdictions, including the UK, the US, and Quebec. Recently, the Canadian federal government accepted the idea of an electronic petitions system after parties came together to pass a motion on e-petitions.

“Petitioning has been a central part of our parliamentary practice for centuries. It is a way in which people across this country can make their opinions known to the people who represent them. I hope as a legislature we put aside partisan differences to support changes that will modernize this democratic action and make it accessible to more British Columbians.”