BC Greens say they will have a slate of candidates ready if snap election called

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New in this update:

COVID-19 update

There are no new cases of COVID-19 in the Island Health Region, but there have been 97 new cases confirmed elsewhere in the province since yesterday. There are twelve active cases of the virus in Island Health and just under 1600 active cases province-wide.

Indigenous rights and privacy rights at odds

A coalition of first nations is asking BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner to order the province to disclose the location of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases near their communities. The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, the Tsilhqot'in National Government and the Heiltsuk Nation say they need that information to keep their communities safe. They want to be told whether the case involves a person that has travelled to one of the Nations and the name of a person infected, if they are a member of one of the Nations so that culturally-safe contact tracing can be put into place. BC's Minister of Health, says he discussed the issue with first nations leaders yesterday. But, it appears Adrian Dix is not willing to agree to their request.

"There are issues to balance here, in terms of people's right to privacy, which is closely connected to their willingness to engage with us, in the health care system. So these are issues we are working on with first nations communities."—Minister of Health Adrian Dix.

Dix says the best way to protect first nations communities is to have a robust and culturally sensitive approach by the health care system that supports those affected by the virus.

The BC Greens will have full slate of Candidates says Furstenau

The new leader of the BC Greens says her party will run a full slate of candidates, if a snap election is called. Sonia Furstenau says calling a snap election would be irresponsible and unnecessary in the midst of a pandemic. But she says her party is ready if that happens.

"We're going to bring forward a platform and policy ideas to show that we are ready to lean into the recovery from COVID-19 in a way that puts health and well-being, security of people, small businesses, renters. It addresses the inequalities that we see in this province and we're going to focus on being a very strong alternative to what has existed in BC politics and will show we have only just gotten started in changing politics in BC and we are going to do a lot more in the future."—BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau.

Furstenau says BC Greens have set partisanship aside and collaborated with the NDP government to ensure British Columbians get the programs they need to cope with the pandemic. She says she will continue to operate in the spirit of collaboration, no matter what the outcome of the next election.

Mayor of Tofino announces plan to run for Mid Island-Pacific Rim for NDP

Meanwhile, election speculation continues with the Mayor of Tofino throwing her hat in the ring as the NDP candidate in the next provincial election. Josie Osborne announced her plans to run in the riding of Mid Island-Pacific Rim, less than 24 hours after the current MLA Scott Fraser announced he will not run again.