VICTORIA – British Columbia house leader Mike Farnworth says the NDP government plans to pass 18 bills in the fall session of the legislature by the time it ends in late November.
Farnworth says the government will focus on growing the economy, protecting health care and dealing with affordability and good governance issues, adding most of the bills will be tabled during the session’s first week to give MLAs time to read the legislation.
He says one of the bills would enable BC Hydro’s planned North Coast Transmission Line between Prince George and Terrace.
The house leader says government will not bring back elements pulled from a bill in response to American tariffs, which spurred criticism over powers it would have given government to revise almost every law and regulation in B.C. through orders-in-council.
The act in response to U.S. government tariffs was tabled during the spring session and drew widespread opposition from Opposition Conservatives, former B.C. Liberals, B.C. Greens, business groups and civil libertarians among others.
Farnworth says it is too early to tell how the legislature will work with four official parties after the One BC party emerged from a schism within the BC Conservatives, but notes that it’s not the first time the legislature has seen this many parties.
He says the government will function “as it has done in years’ past” with the opening day of the fall session expected to coincide with a large rally by members of British Columbia General Employees’ Union who are in the fifth week of escalating strike action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.
