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BC NDP retreats to central Vancouver Island as caucus shares summer stories

Horgan says team members will share what they’ve learned during meetings being held in Parksville
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B.C. Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside and Premier John Horgan meet students outside École Hammond Bay on Monday, Sept. 26. (Greg Sakaki/News Bulletin)

The B.C. NDP is holding its caucus retreat on the mid Island this week as it prepares for the fall legislature session.

Premier John Horgan and numerous cabinet ministers were at École Hammond Bay on Monday, Sept. 26, to view the school expansion project there. The caucus meetings are being held in Parksville.

“It’s an opportunity for all of us to come together, talk about what we’ve learned talking to constituents throughout the summer…” said Horgan. “To come together here allows us to have those candid conversations that we haven’t been able to have for the past couple of months. The value of the legislative session is not just that we get to debate issues in the legislature, we get to sit together and compare stories.”

He said politics is a team sport and every day is an opportunity for team-building.

“How do we collaborate to get the best outcomes for as many people as possible?” he asked.

Adam Walker, Parksville-Qualicum MLA, said it was great to have his colleagues in his constituency to meet with service providers and “raise up” some of the work that is happening at the grassroots level.

Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA and minister of mental health and addictions, said her colleagues who see school expansion and permanent supportive housing projects in Nanaimo, for example, can “tell the stories that we’ve heard here and give people some hope that despite a really hard couple of years, we’re making a lot of progress.”

READ ALSO: B.C. Premier John Horgan expected to attend tribute in Qualicum Beach



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About the Author: Greg Sakaki

I have been in the community newspaper business for two decades, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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